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Divide and Rule: China’s Responses to the various Indo-Pacific Initiatives / Jean-Pierre CABESTAN

Divide and Rule : China’s Responses to the various Indo-Pacific Initiatives
Jean-Pierre CABESTAN, Department of Government and International Studies, Faculty of Social Science, Hong Kong Baptist University

This paper focus on China’s responses to the various Indo-Pacific initiatives that have been made public since Shinzo Abe coined the very idea of Indo-Pacific in 2016 and how these responses have impacted on China-ASEAN relations. Actually, it is China’s rise and, in 2013, Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) that have been the main drivers of all the Indo-Pacific initiatives taken subsequently. Xi’s BRI and later Japan’s and, in 2017, US’s Trump Administration’s Indo-Pacific strategies have been the real game changers. Additional Indo-Pacific initiatives have been taken later by other actors as India, Australia, France, the EU, Germany and the ASEAN. These initiatives have directly contributed to intensifying China’s activism on all fronts with the risk of antagonising more countries, including among its ASEAN partners. All in all, Beijing’s divide and rule strategy has been rather successful and is likely to be maintained, even if today, it is facing more pushback among ASEAN capitals and among other capitals, especially Washington, Tokyo, Delhi and Canberra, in other words the Quad.

 

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Session 7 / Security Issues and Strategic Challenges in the Indo-Pacific
Chair : Mrs. Gwen ROBINSON (Chulalongkorn University/Nikkei)

Since its creation, the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) has contributed to the maintenance of peace and security in the Asia-Pacific region. As Asia is becoming the global center of economic gravity, any conflict in the Indo-Pacific region involving a major power would have a global impact. Does a shared Indo-Pacific geographical understanding can contribute to security partnerships and stability and how can regional powers manage the strategic tensions arising across this wide area ? This session deals with maritime security, but also cybersecurity, as well the sensitive management of water security issues in the Mekong by six countries. At least, the Rohingya refugee crisis in Myanmar since 2015 and the recent Coup constitute a major challenge to take up. Could the Indo-pacific cooperation play a significant role to manage present and future crisis ?

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“Asia’s Post-Pandemic Order and Integration : Outlook of ASEAN and the Indo-Pacific at Crossroads” is an international conference organized by The Research Institute on Contemporary Southeast Asia (IRASEC-CNRS) with the ASEAN Studies Center (Chulalongkorn University) in Bangkok, and the ASEAN-India Centre (AIC), RIS in New Delhi.
8-9 July 2021 - Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok