U.S. military alliances in the Pacific range from robust to tricky due in large part to China’s economic stranglehold on smaller Asian countries and bullying tactics with larger neighbors.
The challenge has made Defense Secretary Mark Esper’s effort to contain Chinese aggression difficult at best and has led to the casting of a much wider net in the region, as evidenced by remarks in Honolulu on Wednesday as part of the secretary’s Pacific swing this week.
“Our robust network of allies and partners remains the enduring asymmetric advantage we have over near-peer rivals, namely China,” Esper said in a virtual keynote address to the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies, which has hosted military and civilian officials from 100 nations in its 25 years in existence.
But those allies and partners are weary of working too closely with the United States, the American Enterprise Institute’s China defense expert, Zack Cooper, told the Washington Examiner Thursday.
“Malaysia, Philippines, Vietnam — each one of those three is highly dependent on the Chinese economy to help drive growth,” he said of China’s South China Sea neighbors, each with its own disputed territorial claims and stories of Chinese bullying. “That’s a huge problem.”
He added: “We’re not likely to see the other claimants in the South China Sea just openly criticize China.”
In recent months, some have even shied away from defending their territorial claims to waters, islands, and features. The Philippines, which has a defense relationship with the U.S. stretching back more than 50 years, has even stopped the U.S. from using its military bases for any potential future conflict with China.
China has prioritized its military modernization, Esper stressed, and has used military might and economic pressure to upend an international order that helped its own growth.
“Today, regrettably, that free and open system is under duress,” Esper said.
The Chinese Navy possesses some 335 surface ships, though many are littoral, compared to America’s 295. Its development of ballistic anti-ship missiles also threatens America’s large platform ships.
That will necessitate more allies to keep U.S. forces further from Chinese missile threats should a conflict arise.
In Hawaii, Esper met virtually with the chiefs of defense from 29 Pacific nations, and in a public shift, the defense secretary has begun to speak of building partnerships with smaller and further dispersed Pacific nations.
“We are also looking to expand our engagement with new and emerging partners throughout South and Southeast Asia,” he said. “Assisting countries across the region to develop their national security policies, strategies, plans, and laws is critical.”
Esper noted the first-ever joint military exercise with India recently, and the U.S. carrier visit to Vietnam in March. That visit is believed to have led to the coronavirus outbreak aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt.
Esper said $400 million in security assistance has helped strengthen maritime security and domain awareness for the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, the Maldives, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh.
He also noted that assistance to Mongolia, the Philippines, and several Pacific island nations have helped make them more prepared and able to defend their own sovereignty. The defense secretary also said the U.S. continues seeking opportunities to build relationships with countries such as East Timor, Mongolia, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, and Tonga.
Every partnership in the region will be crucial to America’s Pacific defense, said Cooper.
“From the military standpoint, one thing we have to do is broaden the number of countries that we work with,” he said, noting America’s top regional allies remain: Australia, Japan, and South Korea.
Cooper, who will be discussing the Pentagon’s China Military Power Report next week, also noted the secretary’s planned visit to the Compact States, which include Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, and Palau.
“The Compact States, for example, [are] really critical to decreasing the vulnerability of our armed forces in the region,” he noted.
“I think you’re going to continue to see the Defense Department reach out to a really broad range of allies and partners to try and build a network of basing and access options throughout the region,” he explained.
None will come without risk, however, to those nations willing to cooperate with the U.S.
“One of those risks is their economic ties to Beijing will come under threat,” he said. “One thing you’ll often see is that many of these countries will work with us, but they’ll want to do so quietly.”
