Countering China's rising influence

EARLIER this month, at the US-ASEAN Ministerial Meeting in Singapore, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced a commitment for US government investments in the region. Touted under the grandiloquent name of America's Indo-Pacific Economic Vision, it is the economic pillar of a larger security-driven US Free and Open Indo-Pacific strategy that aims to counter the rising influence of China and its hegemonic ambitions.

While the Indo-Pacific Economic Vision is a good start for the Trump administration, it is extraordinarily modest in comparison with China's Belt and Road Initiative, or BRI; with an initial US$113 million tied in the energy, infrastructure and cybersecurity sectors, critics point out that it is a tiny fraction of the amounts China has already spent and what it plans to spend over the coming decades which, in Beijing's estimates, could total a trillion dollars.

Although Mr Pompeo noted the US investments are only a downpayment, intimating we can expect larger commitments in the future, a healthy dose of scepticism is in order. The US government doesn't possess the same organisational DNA as China does - Xi Jinping has numerous state-owned enterprises and commercial banks at his disposal for overseas investments to realise his party's vision of commercial dominance, none of which the USA possesses. And, unlike the USA, its disciplined one-party system enables Mr Xi and his top cadres to think about and act upon its long-term interests in a strategic, coherent manner.