In Forcing Countries To Choose Sides, US Is Biggest Source of Disturbance in the Asia-Pacific

When Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim attended the 2024 ASEAN-Australia Special Summit in Melbourne, Australia, recently, he openly criticized the United States and the West for forcing other countries to take sides, saying that Malaysia has no problem with China, does not want to be forced to choose and that the U.S. and other Western countries should not be hindering the development of friendly relations between Malaysia and China.

This is not the first time that Anwar has criticized the U.S. and the West for deliberately provoking other countries into choosing sides. During an event at the University of California at Berkeley last November, Anwar said Malaysia would continue to seek strong relationships with both China and the U.S., and that it would not be forced into choosing one side over the other. And in February 2024, he told London’s Financial Times that he condemned the West’s “China-phobia, stressing that Malaysia would remain neutral and autonomous and would not challenge China on behalf of the U.S.

Anwar’s refusal to pick a side is a rational choice based on Malaysia’s national concerns. Throughout the years, win-win cooperation has been the mainstay of China-Malaysia relations, and pragmatic cooperation has brought tangible benefits to the people of both countries. Malaysia was also one of the first countries to respond to the Belt and Road Initiative, and there is no doubt that deepening cooperation with China will provide Malaysia with more and better opportunities for development.

The U.S., on the other hand, has been trying to strategically contain China in the Asia-Pacific region and curb China’s influence through diplomatic and military means. Under the guise of cooperation, the U.S. and Western countries have been assembling small, exclusive circles to attack and smear China and instigate confrontation. This reflects the concern in the U.S. and among Western countries about China’s rise and their anxiety about their declining influence in the region. However, to a certain extent, the U.S. deliberately provoking other countries to pick a side indicates that its hegemony is declining, and that it is incapable of blocking China’s progress on its own. At the same time, those same provocations are the biggest source of trouble in the Asia-Pacific region.

Asia-Pacific countries are blessed with abundant resources, huge markets, a strong complementary economic situation, and a concentration of the world’s major economies. In recent years, the region’s economies have been among the fastest growing in the world, and International Monetary Fund reports show that the Asia-Pacific economic growth rate in 2023 was both higher than its growth rate of 3.9% in 2022 and significantly higher than the global growth rate of about 3% in 2023. The Asia-Pacific region accounts for one-third of the world’s population, more than 60% of its economies, and nearly half of its trade; it has become the most dynamic growth area in the global economy in recent years and will have a stabilizing effect on development worldwide. Out of self-interest, a very small number of Asia-Pacific countries conspire to draw lines based on ideological and social systems, containing China’s development and the consolidation of their comprehensive national power by banding together and politicizing and weaponizing economic, financial and technological cooperation. But most of them, like Malaysia, have shown a strong desire for win-win development and cooperation, and have always made maintaining peace, stability and economic development their top priority.

The United States’ tendency to stoke tensions, divisions and incidents in the Asia-Pacific is not just a serious violation of the independent foreign policies of the countries concerned — it also poses a grave threat to regional peace and stability. Currently, geopolitical games are intensifying, all sorts of conflicts and clashes are emerging, multilateralism and trade liberalization are under threat, and world economic development is facing a bottleneck. The growing tendency, in the U.S. and the West, to ideologize and weaponize the economy poses a serious threat to the global economy’s stability and development. At the same time, most of the world’s peace-loving and justice-seeking countries have come to realize the importance of maintaining world peace and internal stability for economic development, and they are willing to work with other countries on an equal footing in pursuit of mutual benefits, peaceful coexistence, and win-win cooperation. There is global consensus for pursuing peaceful development, and maintaining a relatively peaceful and stable regional environment has been an important premise of the Asia-Pacific’s rapid development over the past 30 years. It is precisely thanks to the commitment of countries in the Asia-Pacific to openness and inclusiveness, common development, and the search for common ground while accommodating differences that the Asia-Pacific region has become a center of world economic growth, an anchor for global development and stability, and a cooperative high ground, giving rise to the “Asia-Pacific Miracle” that has captured the world’s attention.

Looking around the Asia-Pacific today, it is a basic reality that the interests and destinies of all parties are intertwined. Everyone in the region generally believes that confrontation between camps will not solve any problems, and that there is no future in drawing lines based on ideology and forming geopolitical cliques. The Asia-Pacific is no one’s backyard and should not be turned into a battleground for the great powers. Looking to the future, if the Asia-Pacific is to continue its miraculous development, it must build a solid foundation for peaceful development. As we stand at the crossroads of a new era, all parties in the Asia-Pacific should work together, shoulder the responsibilities of the times, persevere with successful experiences, and forge ahead toward the goal of building an Asia-Pacific community with a shared destiny, so as to inject more Asia-Pacific strength into the peaceful development of the world.

The author is a special commentator for the China Internet Information Center and a lecturer at the Central Party School’s (National Academy of Governance’s) Institute of International and Strategic Studies, Beijing.