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Opinion | The loss of global influence by the United States is China’s gain

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Opinion | The loss of global influence by the United States is China’s gain

Nicholas Burns, the US ambassador to China, and his State Department colleague Jose Fernandez think the United States has created a successful playbook to help other countries resist China’s economic coercion. So say two representatives of a nation which has imposed two-thirds of the world’s total number of sanctions with 60 per cent of low-income countries being so targeted. Even the International Criminal Court has been on its hit list.

Recommended readings: “America is losing Southeast Asia: Why US allies in the region are turning toward China.” That’s the title of an essay in the current edition of Foreign Affairs.

“When many Southeast Asians look at the United States now, they see a country that is dysfunctional at home and pushing a nakedly self-interested agenda abroad,” it said.

“Chinese investments are generally welcomed in Southeast Asia … The United States should avoid overstating its convergence with Asian partners. Stressing the convergence narrative suggests, at best, that Washington lacks an awareness of the United States’ declining position in Southeast Asia and, at worst, that Southeast Asia is being overlooked in US foreign policy.”

As has been widely reported, the Singapore-based ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute this year found 50.5 per cent of respondents across Asean countries chose “strategic alignment” with China against 49.5 per cent for the US. In 2020, it was 50.2 per cent for the US and 49.8 per cent for China.

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