Obama’s ASEAN partnership to solve conflict in South China Sea is questionable
Design by Allen Pham
Just this week, Obama and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) met for a two-day summit in Sunnylands to address the increased tensions within the South China Sea. While not directly mentioned in their joint statement in efforts to be diplomatic, the main source of the problem is China’s growing security threat in the Asia-Pacific region. The leaders of the US-ASEAN summit claimed that the meeting had positive outcomes, but it is highly unlikely that the deeply rooted problems between the Southeast Asian regions are close to being solved. While the U.S. involvement in ASEAN has been linked to regional security and economic growth, considering that US-ASEAN trade is worth $225 billion, its motives are questionable and have come under fire for its hypocrisy and violation of human rights.
The United States wants China to play by the rules, but China doesn’t think they are at fault or that these rules apply because these disputed areas are already under Chinese sovereignty. They believe that they are granted the right to all of the South China Sea and have gone to many extremes to assert their dominance, including deploying surface-to-air missiles on a disputed island, claiming the action to be “appropriate and reasonable.”
From the U.S. perspective, every individual and country is entitled to rights, and the conflict of the disputed areas involving sovereign states and China is infringing on those states’ sovereignty. Not only that, but some of the waters do not belong to any sovereign state but are international waters per UN designation. China’s recent aggressive and territorial behavior over islands in the South China Sea has irritated other countries and ASEAN members near the region, like Taiwan, Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines. While the countries agreed to approach this situation peacefully and legally, the United States has already angered China by sailing Navy ships near the artificial islands that China created, in order to “demonstrate freedom to sail there” and is looking for additional support from other ASEAN members by holding the summit.
Though it is true that China has been crossing lines with U.S. allies in Southeast Asia, the United States’ involvement with ASEAN is a red flag in itself. Obama said that he would stand with those in the region looking to advance good governance, but four of the 10 Southeast Asian leaders invited to the summit, only four were elected through free and fair elections. The other heads of government came into power through illegal means and most of the 10 members have poor human rights records, including “restrictions on civil society, failures on women’s rights, the political use of courts, high-level corruption, lack of protection of refugees and asylum seekers, human trafficking, and abuses against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people,” according to Human Rights Watch. In the past, the U.S. has backed, funded and even enabled dictatorships, including Thailand’s military coup in 2014, in order to maintain influence in a certain country or region. Despite public statements of disapproval from Secretary of State John Kerry, the administration continued to fund for law enforcement, counterterrorism and non-proliferation programs in Thailand. Though on the surface, the United States is a democratic republic and prides itself on these foundations — its foreign policy of denouncing authoritarian regimes is more of a means to an end.
U.S’s partnership with authoritarian regimes of ASEAN and its implicit actions toward China makes it clear that the alliance is solely for economic and political gain, disregarding important issues like human rights and democracy. If it were the other way around and China’s authoritarian regime did not pose a threat or even benefitted the United States, the U.S. would be okay with it, adding to its hypocrisy.
Obama can smile at a desert resort with dictators of Southeast Asian countries, promising optimism and peaceful resolution, but based on the U.S.’s past actions and China’s increased militarization and recent deployment of missile systems, it’s clear that this dispute will only lead to mutual escalation and won’t be peacefully resolved anytime soon.
Erika Lee is a sophomore majoring in print and digital journalism. She is also the lifestyle editor of the Daily Trojan.
China’s CCP is Stepping all over the Asean Countries and all they do Cry , Cry ,and Cry . China has shown them War is Coming , because of Their Cowering Stance in dealing with China . After at least 10 years of the CCP Militarizing the SCS , Asean still Sits on Their Hands waiting for ……….. What…. ? . The CCP’s Night-Mare That has Just Started ……. !
RED FLAG. Just needs one incident.
If China claims sovereignty they have every right to protect their territories. However, China’s actions or no action suggest they are using words to bluff their fake claims.
US and AU with FON will perhaps keep pushing for a RED FLAG to get a result.
Chinese media is asking its Navy or militarized white hulls to ram USN ships. They should do it. Let’s see what happens next.
Is China ready to play with the big boys and their toys? Or is China using big words… but has no credibility?
Erika,
There’s a chess game going on with big powers thinking ahead 10-15 years. Think Realpolitik.
The Chinese government is actually trying to claim sovereignty over almost all of the SCS, in which $4 Trillion in trade passes each year. It wants to eventually control who trades with Taiwan so it can blockade the island into submission, and bring Taiwan under it’s control. China wants to deny non-Chinese military ships from the SCS, mainly the USA, to prevent any assistance to Taiwan trying to resist China’s takeover. There are many other reasons, as well. It’s a total “might makes right” power play.
China had a trade surplus of half a Trillion dollars with the USA last year, and enormous trade surpluses with the USA for the past decade. Why would they want to upset the apple-cart?
I’m all about human rights, and, needless to say, the USA is far from perfect, but China is starting to scare the hell out of a lot of countries. It’s the East Asian countries trying to establish and increase military ties with the USA and each other in response to China. It’s because China is becoming an aggressive expansionist power, not a peacefully rising power.
Do you suppose that it is perhaps in response to the US using its military might and advanced weaponry to control the world?
Nope.
Might makes right. World powers only stay on top so long. They will succeed us.
Our influence is waning.
Some have a hard time accepting that.
Maybe so. However, it won’t be china that gets the priviledge.
it didn’t say anywhere in the article that China is a “peacefully rising power.” it clearly states and agrees with the fact that China is aggressive and territorial. It might be true that China is starting to scare the hell out of a lot of countries, but it doesn’t mean the U.S. should be involved so deeply into this conflict.