Rules of engagement: America's Asia-Pacific security policy under an Obama administration

China's strategy of free trade area and economic regionalism

“…Geopolitically, Chinese policy makers and IR scholars wish the FTA network to help China intensify its economic cooperation, and by extension, political relations with its partners and elevate its status in the global power hierarchy by augmenting its hard and soft power (Yu, 2020, p. 207; Zhou & Huang, 2021, p. 17). Some IR scholars (e.g., Ratuva, 2014, p. 409; Tow & Loke, 2009, p. 457) take the view that the United States is adopting a strategy to contain the emergence of any peer competitor, capable of challenging its dominance particularly in the Pacific. Mearsheimer (2006, p. 162), a political scientist at the Chicago University, predicts that “China can not rise peacefully” as “America and China are likely to engage in an intense security competition with considerable potential for war, and most of China's neighbors will join the United States to contain China's power.”…”

“…As the solely remaining superpower, the United States has adopted a series of moves to meet the challenges arising from China's rise, such as the “pivot to Asia,” the “Indo‐Pacific strategy,” the free navigation operations in the South China Sea and the most recently created AUKUS alliance. All these moves are conceived by Chinese foreign policy elites as designed as such to contain China as it is the US strategy to contain any rising power to challenge its hegemony particularly in the Pacific region (Tow & Loke, 2009, p. 457; Yu, 2015, p. 1068).…”

China's Expanding Security Involvement in Africa: A Pillar for ‘China–Africa Community of Common Destiny’

“…Da and Zhang, ; Lin, ) believe that China, as the second largest economy in terms of nominal GDP, has actually arrived at a juncture of power shift. Drawing on historical lessons, they are making warning calls that China is doomed to be confronted with growing pressure from the United States as it is the latter's primary strategy to preclude the rise of an emerging power capable of challenging its hegemony, particularly in the Asia–Pacific (Tow and Loke, ,; Yu, ). These scholars point to the demise of the Soviet Union and the ‘lost decades’ of Japan to make their argument.…”

Asian Anxieties and Alliances: Balancing the Rise of China

“…Instead, the US should take part in talks such as the East Asia Summit (EAS) and the Asian Pacific Community (APC). And while not advocating ASEAN and APEC, these thinkers still see multilateralism, with a de-emphasis on China, as the key (TOW, 2009). Others take a similar stance.…”