Chinese Views of US Foreign Policy under the Obama Administration (original) (raw)
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USAK Yearbook of International Politics and Law Vol.5, pp.195-225, 2012
Since 9/11, Southeast Asia began to attract U.S. attention and became the U.S. second front against terrorism. Under the influence of neo-conservativism, the Bush administration changed Washington’s “benign neglect” strategy against Southeast Asia and slowly led the U.S. back to the region. Under the Obama administration, the Washington has placed its emphasis on “complete return to Southeast Asia” and adopted a smart power strategy that applies both the carrot and the stick at the same time. The Obama administration seeks to balance China’s growing regional influence, advance U.S. status in East Asia and respond to issues such as global terrorism, financial crisis and climate change. This article seeks to address U.S. policy changes in Southeast Asia and identify important factors that affect policy transformation. The authors examine the policy differences and transitions between the Bush and Obama administration.
Strategic Forum. August 2013. The Rebalance to Asia: U.S.-China Relations and Regional Security
2013
, Obama administration officials proclaimed a U.S. "return to Asia." This pronouncement was backed with more frequent travel to the region by senior officials (Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's first trip was to Asia) and increased U.S. participation in regional multilateral meetings, culminating in the decision to sign the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Treaty of Amity and Cooperation and to participate in the East Asia Summit (EAS) at the head-of-state level. The strategic "rebalance to Asia" announced in November 2011 builds on these earlier actions to deepen and institutionalize U.S. commitment to the Asia-Pacific region. Asia's rapid growth and economic dynamism have greatly expanded the region's economic and strategic weight, elevating its importance for U.S. interests and demanding an increased U.S. focus. This evolution has been welcomed by America's Asia specialists, who have long advocated greater investment of resources and attention from high-level U.S. policymakers. 1 At a time of often bitter partisanship in the United States, there is broad, bipartisan consensus on Asia's importance. Indeed, partisan criticism has focused primarily on whether the administration in power is doing enough to increase U.S. engagement in Asia and whether rhetorical commitment is backed with sufficient resources. 2 While some initial comments about the U.S. "return to Asia" were cast in terms of correcting alleged neglect of the region by the administration of George W. Bush, senior Obama administration officials believed that the war on terror and U.S. military commitments in Iraq and Afghanistan had produced an imbalanced global footprint. The United States was overweighted in the Middle East and underweighted in the Asia-Pacific. 3 The phrase rebalance to Asia was intended to highlight the region's heightened priority within U.S. global policy.
George W. Bush’s post-9/11 East Asia policy: enabling China’s contemporary assertiveness
International Politics, 2023
It is commonly argued that China's foreign policy and behaviour have become increasingly assertive since Xi Jinping took the reins of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). This strategic transformation is seen as paving the way for a direct confrontation between China and the USA since the Trump presidency. Drawing on the logic of international order-building, however, this article argues that the groundwork for this strategic change was laid when Hu Jintao was leading the CCP and that what made it possible was George W. Bush's China and East Asia policy after 9/11. Bush's subsequent reduced interest in East Asia enabled China to fill the void left by an absence of US presence and influence in the region. This article asserts that American policy-makers may need to ponder what their order-building project to weaken and exclude an illiberal China should include.
Korean Journal of Defense Analysis, 2013
This article examines the connection between President Barack Obama's 2011 Strategic Pivot to Asia and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's 2010 Hanoi Declaration on the South China Sea dispute. Secretary Clinton's statement during the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) in July 2010 evoked a new diplomatic strategy in confronting an emergent and assertive China-constrainment. This strategy involved Washington working with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member-states in persuading China to adhere to a multilateral approach in resolving the South China Sea issue. However, China admonished the ASEAN states not to follow the U.S. bidding. As a major economic partner and an occasional political ally of most ASEAN states, China subsequently thwarted the U.S. design to form a regional bloc for a constrainment policy. Failing diplomatically, the Obama administration is rebalancing U.S. naval /air forces toward the Asia-Pacific region. This marks a shift from a diplomatic constrainment policy to a pivot strategy that is predicated on American military power.