Huang Haibo: Can the U.S. and China Cooperate on Southeast Asian Security Issues?

This is the 10th year of the Asia-Pacific Security Summit (Shangri-La Dialogue), held at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London. It was the fifth time that U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates attended the summit and also marked the first time that Chinese State Councilor and Defense Minister Liang Guanglie attended the summit. It was the third time that the defense ministers of the two countries met.

It is worth paying attention to the various pieces of information released by U.S. and Chinese officials before the summit, as well as the disputes between China and Vietnam and China and the Philippines. These issues have caused a lot of conjecture among the international public regarding U.S.-China cooperation on security issues in Southeast Asia.

First of all, Kurt M. Campbell, U.S. State Department Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, made a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies on May 31. He stated that the most important thing for the United States during the week of the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Regional Forum and the East Asia Summit is to show that the U.S. is committed to cooperating with China. He said that they wanted to make sure that they could cooperate with China in Southeast Asia in an appropriate way and that the United States would list specific projects where the United States and China could cooperate. He reiterated America’s commitment to Asia-Pacific regions. He said that many Northeast Asian issues must also be discussed by regional organizations in Southeast Asia.

Secondly, according to Singapore’s Morning Post, an anonymous official from the U.S. Department of Defense revealed on May 31 that, when giving his speech in Singapore this week, Gates would promise Asian allies that the U.S. Army would stay in Asia and maintain military power even though military funding was being cut.

However, on June 1, Gates explained that the United States would not prevent China’s growing influence. He also suggested that the U.S. should be patient in strengthening the relationship with Beijing. He said that they would not suppress China; China has been a big country for thousands of years. It is now and will continue to be a global power in the future.

Gates pointed out that some capacity building occurring during the process of China’s military modernization made the United States “worried,” including the development of anti-aircraft missiles, cyber-weapons and anti-satellite missiles. Nevertheless, Gates emphasized that he thought the purpose of China’s military strengthening was to expand its influence in Asia, not to challenge the United States. Gates also thought that the Chinese have learned lessons from the former Soviet Union’s experience, concluding that they have no intention of carrying out a comprehensive contest with the United States over military capacity.

From the words of Campbell and Gates, it seems that the United States is committed to cooperating with China in Southeast Asia, but the sincerity of their words is difficult for outsiders to determine.