Us Strategic Rebalance to Asia-Pacific Region

In recent years, especially since 2008 financial crisis, the hegemony of the United States has been seriously challenged. In the meantime, the Asia-Pacific region, particularly China, is developing rapidly. Since 2000, Asia has become the USA’s largest source of imports. The economic importance of this region and the military capabilities of China are growing, which leaves U.S. influence on Asia-Pacific region increasingly limited. In order to project its power in the region and maintain economic interests, the Obama Administration attempts to change its strategies and return to Asia-Pacific, rebalancing away from the Middle East towards East Asia.

U.S. strengthens its role in the Asia-Pacific in all dimensions: military, diplomatic, and economic. Of all these efforts, military rebalancing towards the Asia-Pacific is the most conspicuous. The deployments of troops to Australia and Singapore show an expanded U.S. presence. What’s more, although U.S. defense spending is reduced in overall level, it will not influence the expense of the Asia-Pacific. We can see that the Department of Defense of U.S. puts Asia prior to other regions in the world. It asserts that the rise of China is an unstable factor in terms of the region’s security. In fact, the United States is trying to build up other Asian countries such as India, Vietnam, and Indonesia against China to maintain its hegemony and prevent the rise of new power by creating tension. Contrast to the indulgent attitude towards the unrest in the Middle East, U.S. keeps tension among Asian countries controllable and seeks profits in this way.

In the last few days, U.S. President Obama visited India and has become the first U.S. president to attend India's Republic Day ceremony on January 26. U.S. and India have agreed to further strengthen nuclear and defense cooperation, which shows a closer tie between U.S. and India. India is the largest democracy in the world and is developing rapidly. China and India have territorial disputes in South Tibet. Apart from this, these two countries involve in keen competition. With the growing military capabilities of China, India thinks that it faces a great threat from rising China. Therefore, India desperately needs to accelerate the development of national defense and economy. As for the United