Opinion | How Japan, Indonesia could help ease US-China tensions in Southeast Asia

Name: US-China relations: Joe Biden would approach China with more ‘regularity and normality’
Uploaded: 2020-12-08T03:00:18.000Z
Duration: 6 min 4 s
Description: US-China relations: Joe Biden would approach China with more ‘regularity and normality’

To prevent conflict amid the US-China rivalry, new middle power configurations and bold diplomatic initiatives are in order

This could involve Japan and Indonesia stepping up as middle powers, and Asean doing more to engage the US and China in a dialogue on managing regional tensions

Reading Time:4 minutes

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Michael Vatikiotis

Published: 11:00am, 8 Dec 2020Updated: 11:03am, 8 Dec 2020

As US Presidential-elect Joe Biden gears up to build a broader coalition of allies to deal with China, Beijing is doubling down on its critics with aggressive “wolf-warrior diplomacy”.

Southeast Asia, lying squarely between the two arms of a giant geopolitical nutcracker, is feeling the squeeze of the superpower rivalry. To avoid conflict, new middle power configurations and bold diplomatic initiatives are in order.

There were initial hopes that the incoming Biden administration would soften the tone of recent tensions between Washington and Beijing, which have generated concern in a region that is dependent on China for trade and investment and at the same time is reluctant to take sides.

But it increasingly looks like Biden’s team, under domestic pressure to maintain a tough stance, will focus on making life harder for China by ensuring more effective cooperation with allies.

“The best China strategy, I think, is one which gets every one of our – or at least what used to be our – allies on the same page,” Biden told The New York Times last week. “It’s going to be a major priority for me in the opening weeks of my presidency to try to get us back on the same page with our allies.”

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US-China relations: Joe Biden would approach China with more ‘regularity and normality’

Biden’s quest is finding resonance in other Western countries. Germany and the Netherlands have framed new policies for Asia that specifically include aspirations to push China to embrace global norms and the rule of law. The European Union, meanwhile, has called on Biden to forge a new global alliance to meet the “strategic challenge” posed by China.

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