«China Issue» in US Asia-Pacific Alliances

Nowadays the world economic and political center is shifting to the Asia-Pacific region. Regional countries are gaining in financial, resources, industrial and human importance. At times of the rise of the Asia-Pacific region, China is perceived as a key player. The rise of China has launched a set of divergent trends (escalation of territorial conflicts, arms race, development of multilateral integration organizations), leading to the transformation of the regional security system. Being an inherent part of Asia-Pacific security system for the last decades, Washington is facing the necessity to establish constructive and productive relations with Beijing, taking into consideration its obvious and hidden interests, as well as the new military and political reality, and the growing attention allies pay to the region. Striving to prevent the revision of the American-centered established security order in the region, the US is implementing the combination of “convergence”/”balancing” strategy and the strategy of Beijing “engagement” into multilateral systems at Asia-Pacific and global levels. The main problem is for it to maintain a delicate balance in its policy and a strategy that could conform to the following conditions: to meet the expectations of its Asian/European allies in terms of providing security guarantees and not to raise the concerns of China by using the “congagement” policy. Asian countries remain the cornerstone of American security system in the Asia-Pacific region, while Europeans have a less measurable but also important role. European countries support at the regional and global levels both in terms of cooperating with China or tackling other issues of the international agenda, remains important and necessary for Washington. US also needs to take into consideration the expectations of its allies related to the establishment of a well-balanced and constructive long-term dialogue with Beijing and a deeper engagement of European countries in the Asia-Pacific region.

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