New Changes in U.S. Asia-Pacific Strategy and China’s Countermeasures

CIIS　Time: Jul 26, 2012　Writer: Wang Qiang　Editor: Office of Research Management

New Changes in U.S. Asia-Pacific Strategy and China's Countermeasures

Key Annual Project of the Chinese National Social Sciences Fund?(2012)

Chairperson:?Ruan Zongze

Duration: June 2012 to June 2014

Introduction:

The Asia-Pacific is the region where the interests of China and the United States overlap most and are intertwined with the greatest complexity. With rapid economic development of the region and the consequential changes in military security situations, the competition between China and the U.S. in the region has intensified, with more contradictions and frictions.?How to handle its interest relations with the U.S. is a question that?will accompany the whole process of China’s rise, and it is also an important diplomatic and security subject that calls for our immediate solution.

Since putting forward the slogan of “Returning to Asia”, the U.S. has taken advantage of instable factors in the region to forcefully intervene in regional affairs, strengthen its alliance in the region, and draw China’s neighboring countries over to its side. Due to the U.S. factor, some countries in the Asia-Pacific have changed their ways in dealing with relations with China, some of them even worked in collusion with the U.S. to exert pressure on China. Therefore, China’s neighboring environment has somewhat worsened and its relations with some Asia-Pacific countries have turned strained. How to strike a balance between its relations with the neighboring countries and with the U.S. has become a strategic issue in China’s diplomatic endeavor which worth its immediate attention.

This research project will start from studying the new changes that appear during the readjustment of the U.S. strategy toward the Asia-Pacific, and then systematically analyze the historic and international backgrounds of this readjustment, and objectively assess the nature of these new changes. By analyzing the above readjustments and changes, the project aims at identifying the aspirations and strategic objectives of the new U.S. Strategy toward the Asia-Pacific, and the commonalities and differences between the U.S. interests and the interests of the countries in the region. Finally, the project will make an all-round assessment of the impacts of the U.S. adjustment of its Asia-Pacific Strategy on China, and propose tactics and countermeasures for the Chinese side accordingly.