Speaker’s trip to Taipei achieves the opposite of US efforts to impel Asia to stand up against China
Chinese military exercises in the waters around Taiwan. Picture: EASTERN THEATRE COMMAND HANDOUT/REUTERS
On its own, such a display would normally generate widespread condemnation of China. But many governments also saw Pelosi’s visit as a step too far, and they don’t want to get caught in the middle. Since taking office, US President Joe Biden has sought to build a broad coalition in Asia to push back against Chinese overreach, in part, by telling smaller economies they do not need to pick sides. That marked a stark contrast with the Donald Trump administration, which pressured countries in the region to ban Chinese telecom giant Huawei Technologies and take other steps that would effectively force them to choose between the world’s biggest economies.
It is a dangerous, dangerous moment for the world. I know you have to compete, maybe even confront, but we all have skin in this game.Yet all of a sudden, after months of trying to make it comfortable for countries to align with the US, Pelosi’s visit forced Asia to take a stand on China’s most sensitive issue of all. And many governments just put their heads down.
Asean’s statement “is quite telling actually of the alarm in Southeast Asia about their own economic wellbeing being disrupted by a flashpoint developing in the Taiwan Strait”, said Alexander Neill, a Singapore-based adviser on geopolitical risk who has worked for the US and UK governments. He said the number of countries referencing their One China policies was “a sort of litmus test for Beijing’s burgeoning influence across the region”.
“Not having a response is also kind of a response,” said Sana Hashmi, postdoctoral fellow at the Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation. “There is a feeling that India is shying away from taking a stand.”