Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: The way the US and its Allies had opened a second front in Western Europe to counter the Nazis in the early 1940s, they are now unveiling a second front against an expansionist China in Southeast Asia: US Vice-President Kamala Harris—who may emerge as the next presidential hopeful in 2024—seems to be leading the charge for a long haul.
Her very first speech during her ongoing tour of Southeast Asia this week, reaffirming America’s commitment to the region, has predictably stirred up Chinese social media platforms.
Harris’ most high-profile visit yet to Asia began with Singapore, focussing on defending international rules in the South China Sea, expanding security cooperation, and strengthening US regional leadership, according to media reports quoting a White House official.
Her choice of two countries for this visit–Singapore and Vietnam–is significant. While Singapore has been trying to be equidistant from both China and America, Vietnam has joined the US efforts to keep Beijing as far away from the South China Sea as possible. Harris is the first US Vice-President to visit Vietnam from where the US had to withdraw its forces in the 1970s after a long war that claimed over 25,000 American lives. In contrast, the US has lost nearly 2,600 American soldiers in the two-decade-long Afghanistan war.
On Tuesday, she openly accused China of “coercion and intimidation” in the South China Sea, which has been a major flashpoint of Beijing’s assertiveness for years.
“We know that Beijing continues to coerce, to intimidate, and to make claims to the vast majority of the South China Sea,” she said while explaining the Biden administration’s vision for the Indo-Pacific Region.
“Beijing’s actions continue to undermine the rules-based order and threaten the sovereignty of nations,” she added.
As expected, her offensive instantly provoked Beijing. Government-controlled Chinese social media users slammed Harris for her Southeast Asian visit and questioned why she did not visit Afghanistan instead.
“Why did she head to China’s backyard?” a Weibo user said. Another hit out at the US, saying the country has made “countless promises in the past that it had not kept” and now Harris was touring “to stir up trouble and sow discord”.
An irritated Chinese foreign ministry’s spokesperson, Wang Wenbin, had on Monday reacted that the US has done “unscrupulous and dishonest things” in Afghanistan. “The United States is the root cause and the biggest external factor in the Afghan issue,” he said. “It cannot just run away like this.”
China’s frustration is understandable. In one masterstroke, the US has jeopardized its $200 billion Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), including the $60 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). Instead of expanding the BRI’s reach, Beijing will now have to protect whatever it has built it so far.
Sensing the emerging Islamist militancy scenario extending from Afghanistan and Pakistan through Central Asia and Xinjiang, China is trying to smile with the Taliban. Its delegations are busy seeking assurances from the Islamist militia, which may form a new government in a week or two in Kabul.
By adhering to its August 31 deadline for a complete withdrawal of western forces from Afghanistan, the US has suddenly checkmated China. With the Taliban descending in the Kabul vacuum, Beijing might be forced to commit humongous resources to fight Islamists on a larger Central Asian battlefield for decades to protect Xinjiang, or, like the British, Soviet, or the Western armies, descend into Afghanistan, the ‘graveyard of empires.’
The US is apparently working on this large-picture, long-term strategy and its ‘tactical withdrawal’ from Afghanistan appears part of that.
Apart from the four-nation Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad)—involving the US, India, Australia, and Japan—Washington also plans to build yet another wall against China.
Harris’ latest tour of Southeast Asia is part of this strategy.
The office of the US Vice-President, who met with Singaporean President Halimah Yacob and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Monday, said a number of agreements emerged from her meeting. They included combating cyber threats, tackling climate change, addressing the Covid-19 pandemic, and alleviating supply chain issues.
Her speech sought to cement the Biden administration’s commitment to supporting its allies. It has made countering China’s influence globally a centerpiece of its foreign policy, reports said.
China criticized Harris for not mentioning the Afghanistan crisis following the US pulled out. She briefly affirmed the US’s commitment to ensure the safe evacuation of people only after the Singaporean PM said things went “awry” in Kabul.
“There’s no question there will be and should be a robust analysis of what has happened,” she told journalists in Singapore. “But right now there’s no question that our focus has to be on evacuating American citizens, Afghans who worked with us, and vulnerable Afghans, including women and children.”