A recalibration of ties in Asia

Less than 48 hours before Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi landed in Washington, DC, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken held a one-to-one meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

- ANURAG ACHARYA

This was the first high-level US delegation to Beijing since the Trump administration strained ties with Washington over five years ago. A number of immediate factors have contributed to the spiralling of the relations between the two powers, but they all boil down to the fact that Beijing wants to expand its global footprint, and that will come at the expense of the US conceding the influence it already wields across different regions. Nowhere is this competition more visible than in Asia, which has become a geopolitical hotspot.

Over the past decade, China has exhibited increased economic and military prowess, signalling greater confidence to engage across global fora. Beijing’s continued support for regimes in Iran and North Korea—which have taken hostile posturing against the US and other European countries—has consistently come under criticism from Washington. China’s aggressive economic diplomacy through the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and military diplomacy in the Indo-Pacific region also alarmed the US.

Meanwhile, China has been condemning the presence of the US and its interference in the East and South China Seas. The region includes the contentious Taiwan Strait and several islands that China claims as its own, but countries like South Korea and Japan challenge it. Similarly, Washington’s strategic partnership with India has also not gone well in Beijing, as it directly challenges China’s ambitions in South Asia. Increased hostilities between India and China over the past years can also be attributed to what Beijing views as New Delhi ganging up with the US and Japan through their Indo-Pacific strategy.