By Xu Ke
The US has been actively promoting the so-called Indo-Pacific Strategy in the Asia-Pacific region in recent years to lure and coerce regional countries into forming an alliance primarily aimed at containing China. In reality, this strategy is divisive, confrontational, and destabilizing.
Under the framework of the Indo-Pacific Strategy, the US has disregarded existing political, economic, and security cooperation processes in the Asia-Pacific region, weakened the ASEAN-centered regional cooperation architecture, and tried to piece together a hegemonic system led by the US. The US aims to disrupt and fracture regional cooperation agendas, alter the existing peaceful and stable status quo in the Asia-Pacific region, and undermine the principles of good neighborliness among Asia-Pacific countries.
Strengthening the Five Eyes, peddling the Quad, piecing together AUKUS, and promoting a trilateral relationship between the US, Japan, and the ROK, and between the US, Japan, and the Philippines, the US is attempting to divide countries along ideological lines and stoke confrontations. While claiming to establish a "free and open Indo-Pacific," the US is pressuring regional countries to take sides and form exclusive and exclusionary groups. The US claims to maintain regional security, but it is introducing major power competition in the Asia-Pacific and creating a climate of rivalry. The US claims to promote regional prosperity but is actively pursuing "decoupling" and disrupting economic and trade cooperation and integration in the Asia-Pacific. The US claims to shape the strategic environment around China, but is exposing its true intention to encircle China and maintain its hegemony using a wolfpack tactic.
The villain's design is obvious. The hegemonic actions of the US have caused widespread concerns and alarm internationally, particularly among Asia-Pacific countries. Lee Pei May, a political expert at the International Islamic University Malaysia, argues that no matter how it is dressed up, this strategy ultimately serves US interests. Researcher of Philippine-BRICS Strategic Studies Anna Malindog-Uy said that the continuous efforts of the US to create division and confrontation in the Asia-Pacific will only lead to chaos, instability, and uncertainty. The Bangkok Post claims that the US is pursuing a "win-lose" approach while China emphasizes a cooperative "win-win" model.
The Asia-Pacific region should be a platform for peaceful development rather than a geopolitical chessboard. Cooperation in the Asia-Pacific should serve the common interests of regional countries rather than the narrow interests of one country's hegemony. The rules and order in the Asia-Pacific should be determined collectively by regional countries rather than being dictated unilaterally by a few countries.
Deliberately avoiding the term Asia-Pacific in favor of creating the concept of Indo-Pacific, creating small cliques to cause division and confrontation, and selling security anxiety…The 21st century is already one-fifth over, yet the US continues to cling to 20th-century Cold War thinking and outdated hegemonic logic. This approach goes against the tide of history, goes against the wishes of the region's people, and is destined for failure.
