Bid for dominance over Asia Pacific tests US, China attempt at detente

Defence chief Lloyd Austin has praised a “new era of security” in the Asia Pacific as he underscored that the region remained a major strategic priority for the United States, drawing a quick pushback from a senior Chinese military official.

According to Al Jazeera, Austin made the statement on June 1, a day after holding a crucial meeting in Singapore with his Chinese counterpart, Dong Jun, during which they agreed to resume military-to-military communications amid efforts to ease growing tensions between the world’s two largest economies.

China hailed Friday’s face-to-face talks and the agreement to mend fraying security ties as “stabilising”. But competition and tensions over a slew of issues – from Taiwan to the South China Sea – continue to test the resolve of both countries.

On Saturday, Austin said that in the past three years there had been a “new convergence around nearly all aspects of security” in the region, where there was a shared understanding of “the power of partnership”.

“This new convergence is producing a stronger, more resilient and more capable network of partnerships and that is defining a new era of security” in the region, Austin told the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore.

However, it was not “about imposing one country’s will” or “bullying or coercion”, Austin said, in an apparent shot at China, which has increased its sabre-rattling over self-ruled Taiwan and grown more confident in pressing its claims in the South China Sea.

“This new convergence is about coming together and not splitting apart,” Austin said. “It’s about the free choices of sovereign states.”

Responding to Austin, Chinese Lieutenant General Jing Jianfeng accused the US of seeking to build “an Asia Pacific version of NATO”, and described the superpower as the “greatest challenge to regional peace and stability”.

Jing said the US strategy was intended “to create division, provoke confrontation and undermine stability”.

“It only serves the selfish geopolitical interests of the US and runs counter to the trend of history and the shared aspirations of regional countries for peace, development and win-win cooperation,” said Jing, who serves as the deputy chief of the Joint Staff Department of China’s Central Military Commission.

Reporting from Singapore, Al Jazeera’s Patrick Fok said  Austin left “very little doubt” that the US was trying to project its power in the region.

“That seems to provoke a response from the Chinese side,” he said, pointing out that the “acrimony has spilled out in the open”.

He added: “The message that we are getting here [is that] the US is deeply committed to the Indo-Pacific and that the US is not going anywhere.”