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US Foreign Politics in South East Asia (US-China, US-Japan Relations, Using South China Sea
Issue)
In recent years, countries have developed the norm of setting up policies and agreements
that govern their relations and interactions to ensure peaceful coexistence and mutual benefits to
all states involved. These systems, known as foreign policies, ensure that the interest of the
countries domestically as well as internationally are catered for and that strategies are put in
place that provides the benefits and goals are achieved. Additionally, policies define the extent to
which a nation can network with its neighbors, friends, partners, as well as the adversaries in
matters relating to trade, geopolitics, and social issues. Therefore, these policies help nations to
associate with each other, thus ensuring that peace and order are maintained in the world.
Although the United States has had a significant presence in the Asian region as a superpower, in
recent years, China has grown exponentially to threaten its dominance in the area.
Since the end of the Second World War, the United States has played a vital role in the
growth of many nations in the Asian region. Most of the countries in the area, both large and
small, have used the country as the perfect destinations for their exports, making it one of the
essential and fundamental trading partners of the region (Beech 3). Additionally, America has
been a constructive partner to these nations by providing military and monetary support as well
as human help in cases of calamities and disasters. These subtle relations between the countries
in the region and the U.S. have seen the growth of a relationship among the nations as latter sets
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up policies that propel its agendas in the area. These systems ensure that there is peace within
them; therefore, the latter gets an opportunity to improve its economy by expanding its trade
bases as well as partners. In addition, these policies have hugely served to safeguard international
norms such as the freedom of overflight and navigation of international waters, hence ensuring
regional stability and peace (French 4). Therefore, through the policies, the United States has
preserved its credibility as a superpower and a significant political and economic partner to the
countries in the Asian region.
It is important to note that the South-East region of the Asian continent is of keen interest
to the United States. The area lies south of China and houses a relative number of countries such
as the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Cambodia, East Timor, Laos, and Singapore among
others. The majority of these countries are dependent on the United States for their significant
infrastructural investments as well as military support to protect their sovereignty and national
borders in addition to expanding economies. Therefore, America sets up policies and conditions
that these countries have to meet and agree to before the countries can engage in any form of
partnership. Most of these guidelines touch on issues of mutual peaceful coexistence and the
respect for a country’s boundaries. However, in recent years, China has risen to threaten the
dominance of the United States in the region. It is an upcoming superpower that hopes to be the
most powerful nation in the world, and it has taken significant strides in ensuring that it meets
this objective.
The first initiative that China has taken is to draw its neighbors closer to it by offering
partnerships in terms of financial investments in conjunction with financing infrastructural
projects. This move has seen the division of countries in the region, with some partnering with
the United States, while others have adopted China as their preferred investment partner. For
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example, China has built a multilateral bank, the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank, through
which it offers construction project funds to other countries. Notably, it was established to
compete with Western-led organizations such as the World Bank (French 7). While financial
analysts in the region concur that the nations which are in partnership with the United States
seem to be doing exceptionally well compared to their counterparts who have chosen the China
way, the latter continues to penetrate the region previously dominated by the former. This move
by China has affected the relations between the two countries primarily due to the unfair way
that it carries its activities in the region. The most notable actions are those of the Asian nation
on the South Sea, where it has used its military ability and superiority to harass and threaten the
much smaller and less endowed neighbors military wise. By doing so, China has seized up pieces
of lands in the south sea that were previously controlled by other nations or those that were
unoccupied. All these steps are strategically aimed at growing the country as a world
superpower, where it hopes to manage the vast amount of wealth in unexploited minerals, oil,
gas, and fisheries that these sea areas are assumed to contain. Additionally, by acquiring these
coral reefs and sandbars, the country is able to increase its sense of security and hence become at
par with the United States. These steps have deteriorated the relations between the two countries,
especially because China fails to acknowledge the international laws. Notably, it was unable to
recognize and dismissed the verdict made by the arbitral tribunal that was deciding the
Philippines, South Sea case against itself, in which the judgment was rendered unanimously in
favor of the Philippines. Through the threats and harassment, nations such as the Philippines
have sided with the country as they do not want to pick fights with their more economically and
politically superior neighbor. These actions have seen the replacement of the United States by
China as the areas’ dominating nation, where the former has been left to play catch up as it is no
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longer driving agendas in the region which has forcefully been taken up by the latter (Landler 5).
Responsive actions by the United States such as the withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific
Partnership Trade Pact further support the assertion that the two countries no longer enjoy a good
relationship. Therefore, China’s inability to adhere to international rules and its harassment and
use of force against its neighbors to gain vast areas of land on the South Sea can be said to be the
reason for the poor relations.
The weak relation between China and the United States has, however, played in favor of
other Asian countries such as Japan, which has dramatically improved its relations with the
world superpower in recent years. The United States president, Donald Trump, has personally
been to the Asian continent in a tour that was aimed at improving partnerships with the countries
in the region. In Japan, he met the country’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, where they discussed
and agreed to support each other in improving their nations sovereignty and economic ability
(Fox News 2). Japan, a major car manufacturer in the world, was asked by president Trump to
set up more manufacturing bases in the United States while it was promised military support to
help it fight off some of its rogue neighbors, such as North Korea (Landler and Davis 2).
Furthermore, the partnership would ensure that Japan would acquire its military equipment and
technologies from the United States as a way of showing support for their partner. The U.S. on
their part would come to the aid of Japan in the event of any dispute or calamity. Additionally, in
Vietnam, the United States offered its deal-making skills to help mediate the conflicts in the
South China Sea, which have seen Vietnam lose some of its territorial sea-lands to China
(Landler 4). By making a tour of the Asian continent and promising support to its neighbors,
both financial and military, the United States hopes to improve its partnerships and relations with
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its Asian friends and expand globally as a superpower in the wake of the imminent threat posed
by China.
The foreign policies of the United States in the Asian region have primarily affected the
way that it relates with other countries. While in the past it was the dominating trade partner in
the area, China has risen to take up that position even though it remains the largest market for
Asian products. The rise of China, which has been through the forceful acquisition of sea, land,
harassment of neighbors, and setting up of institutions that offer services previously offered by
the U.S. has affected the relationship between the two countries. This poor relation is as a result
of China’s inability to adhere to international policies and laws as well as the competition
between China and the United States for the position of the most powerful nation in the world.
The competition between the two countries has brought division in the Asian region as some
nations prefer China to the US as their main trade partner and go-to nation when in need of aid.
However, in the wake of the deteriorating interaction between the two countries, the United
States has improved its relations with other states in the region through policies that aim to help
the countries grow economically and politically. The dispute between China and other nations
can be adequately dealt with by China first choosing to respect and adhere to international laws
and ruling of dispute resolution commissions. This way other countries will have trust in the
ability of the use of dispute resolving talks to solve problems among nations. In worst case
scenario, countries around the world can gang up against China and refuse to partner or trade
with China until the nation has stopped bullying nations into conceding into its interests. This
would leave China with no place to invest their finances while blocking China products out of
the international markets and hence forcing the country to adhere to the set international rules
like the other nations do and thus improving its relations with the countries.
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Works Cited
Beech, Hannah. “Vietnam, In a Bind, tries to Chart a Path between U.S. and
China.” Nytimes.com. 2017. www.nytimes.com/2017/11/11/world/asia/vietnam-china-
us.html. Accessed 13 Jan. 2018.
French, Howard. “What’s Behind Beijing’s Drive to Control the South China Sea?” the
Guardian. 2015. www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jul/28/whats-behind-beijings-drive-
control-south-china-sea-hainan. Accessed 13 Jan. 2018.
Landler, Mark, and Julie Hirschfeld Davis. “Trump Tells Japan It Can Protect Itself by Buying
U.S. Arms.” Nytimes.com. 2017. www.nytimes.com/2017/11/06/world/asia/trump-japan-
shinzo-abe.html. Accessed 13 Jan. 2018.
Landler, Mark. “Trump’s Mixed Messages Fail to Reassure Asian Allies.” Nytimes.com. 2017.
www.nytimes.com/2017/11/14/world/asia/trump-asia-trade-north-korea.html. Accessed
13 Jan. 2018.
“Trump, Japan’s Abe Meet before Start of High-Stakes Diplomacy.” Fox News. 2017.
www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/11/05/trump-meets-with-abe-hails-longtime-us-japan-
alliance.html. Accessed 13 Jan. 2018.
