Chinese President Xi Jinping shouldn’t dream of driving the United States from Asia and the Pacific, according a senior House Democrat.
“It’s a matter of peaceful coexistence and competition or endless conflict that could get out of hand,” Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., told the Washington Examiner.
Connolly, who sits on the Foreign Affairs subcommittee for the region, issued that warning during an interview that took place as Vice President Mike Pence attended a pair of major summits hosted by Singapore and Papua New Guinea. Pence’s message through the events was a consistent warning about China’s economic aggression, which could develop into a rare point of foreign policy unity between the Trump administration and the Democrats who will control the House next year.
“We seek an Indo-Pacific in which all nations, large and small, can prosper and thrive — secure in sovereignty, confident in our values, and growing stronger together,” Pence said at the ASEAN summit in Singapore. “We all agree that empire and aggression have no place in the Indo-Pacific.”
That was an apparent reference to China’s vaunted “Belt and Road” initiative, a campaign for international investment in strategically significant infrastructure. The United States has branded it an exercise in “predatory economic behavior” to colonize impoverished countries.
China has gained sovereignty over one valuable port already, by financing a project in Sri Lanka and then taking control of the facility when the island nation — just south of rival India — defaulted on the debt payments.
“Do not accept foreign debt that could compromise your sovereignty,” Pence told regional leaders at the APEC, or Asia Pacific Economic, summit. “The United States offers a better option. We don’t drown our partners in a sea of debt. We don’t coerce or compromise your independent. The United States deals openly and fairly, and we don’t offer a constricting belt or a one-way road. When you partner with us, we partner with you, and we all prosper.”
Foreign policy experts have coined the term “sharp power” to describe China’s economic play for influence, but Xi is prioritizing a build-up of China’s military capabilities. The ongoing construction of a fleet that can project power around the world is one of the most notable signals of their expansionist ambition.
Along the same lines, the Chinese have asserted sovereignty over the vast majority of the South China Sea — one of the planet’s most important shipping lanes — and deployed anti-ship missiles and other defenses to fortify their claims.
“If China wants to somehow assert that, no, it and only it is the power in that region, they are going to have a very serious problem with the United States, because we’re never going to agree to that,” Connolly said.
“Japan made that mistake,” he added, referring to the imperial power play that drew the United States into the Second World War. “They paid a terrible price for it.”
