BEIJING: To deal with the US’ Indo-Pacific Strategy that targets China, China should try to stimulate the potential for regional economic cooperation, increase countries’ interdependence in the region and pay more attention to promote anti-virus cooperation in the context of the raging COVID-19 pandemic, Chinese experts said at an online seminar themed on analyzing different countries’ Indo-Pacific strategies on Saturday.
At the seminar organized by the Global Engagement Academy of Shandong University, Weihai, ten Chinese scholars discussed via video links the nature and purpose of the US’ Indo-Pacific Strategy, different countries’ attitudes toward the strategy and offered suggestions on how China should respond to it.
Jia Wenshan, dean of the Global Engagement Academy, said the American elites hope the 21st century will be the American Century and the Indo-Pacific Strategy in essence is a strategy to sustain US hegemony in Asia and draw in countries including India to contain China’s rise and prevent it from becoming a new center of power in Asia.
The participating scholars did not agree that the US’ Indo-Pacific Strategy could lead to an extensive potential alliance network against China. Japan, India and Australia are currently the main pillars of the US Indo-Pacific Strategy, but their attitudes toward the strategy differ. Australia has now actually stood at the forefront of the US’ Indo-Pacific Strategy, Yu Lei, chief research fellow at the research center for Pacific island countries at Liaocheng University, said. He noted that because Australia believes its prosperity and security relies on the US, it has in fact acted as an active promoter, advocate and constructor of the US Indo-Pacific Strategy. Wang Pengquan, an assistant research fellow with the Institute of Contemporary Socialism at Shandong University, said that compared with Australia, Japan and India have different views on the US strategy that emphasizes too much on geopolitical and military confrontation.
– The Daily Mail-Global Times News exchange item
