In this webinar, Professor Baogang He highlighted China’s evolving, complex and multifaceted approaches to the Indo-Pacific.
REGIONAL STRATEGIC & POLITICAL STUDIES PROGRAMME WEBINAR
Monday, 4 April 2022 – The Indo-Pacific concept is primarily associated with the United States and its like-minded partners to counter China’s emerging dominance in this part of the world. To understand the changing and complex Chinese attitudes and responses towards the Indo-Pacific, the ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute hosted Professor Baogang He for a webinar on “China’s Expanded Perceptions of the Indo-Pacific: Global and Regional Implications”. Professor He is Alfred Deakin Professor at Deakin University and a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia.
In his talk, Professor He contextualised the various understandings of the Indo-Pacific before explaining China’s attitudes and policy responses to the concept. He highlighted three significant dimensions of the Indo-Pacific: (i) as a geographical notion that reflects the flows of trade and people between the Indian and Pacific Oceans; (ii) as an initiative by the United States to develop a coalition to balance China’s rising power; (iii) and as an attempt at regional institutional building based on a broader notion of regionalism than that of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC). However, the conceptualisation of the Indo-Pacific—in contrast to the older formulation of the Asia-Pacific—not only erases the centrality of “Asia”, but also marginalises continental Asia in favour of a more oceanic-based and maritime-oriented focus. This, Professor He warned, could lead to the dilution of ASEAN’s influence and centrality.
The emergence of the Indo-Pacific discourse has prompted some cognitive shifts in China’s perceptions of the region. Although Beijing has not formulated a formal and firm policy view of the Indo-Pacific, China has grown from its traditional continental orientation to embrace the maritime domain. Chinese scholars have expanded their geographical horizons in their academic focus, including establishing journals dedicated to the Indo-Pacific region. Meanwhile, the Chinese business sector has also turned their attentions to areas such as the South Pacific, which were traditionally regarded as an Australian zone of influence. The patterns of Chinese tourism outflows also indicate that the Chinese public is adopting a more “outward-looking, Indo-Pacific mindset”.
Professor He also noted how Beijing’s expanding perception and re-imagination of the broader region manifests through the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), highlighting the geographical overlap between the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road component of the BRI and the Indo-Pacific. China’s outlook reflects the extension of its commitment to the “continental territories” into the Pacific and Indian Oceans, allowing China to develop a “stronger strategic linkage between Central Asia and the Indian Ocean”. Professor He suggested that China’s “adoption and appropriation of Indo-Pacific conceptual elements” into its maritime BRI allows the country to participate in the Indo-Pacific conversation.
For China, the United States’ Free and Open Indo-Pacific strategy reflects a “manufactured super-region designed to hedge against a perceived Sino-centric regional order”, especially with the creation of the Quad and the AUKUS. This has led to a deteriorating security environment and increasing strategic pressure for Beijing. However, by co-opting aspects of the Indo-Pacific discourse into its own BRI framework, China has a chance of preventing the institutionalisation of a US-led Indo-Pacific regional alliance. Moreover, instead of forming its own alliance against the United States, China pursues a strategy of “hybrid regionalism”, in which Beijing “incorporates” certain US partners (though not the United States itself) as members in Chinese-led regional organisations such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) and other cooperative forums. According to Professor He, this diminishes “the conventional friend–enemy dichotomy in alliance politics”, while also reducing the “incentive for countries to align with the United States”. Professor He cited the example of India’s membership in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), which represents the concrete “institutionalisation” of an Indo-Central Asia axis. Chinese scholars also believe that Beijing’s engagement in ASEAN will help to frustrate the United States’ plans, especially if regional countries continue to be lukewarm about the Indo-Pacific concept.
Following his presentation, Professor He engaged in a Q&A session with the 100-strong audience, fielding questions related to China’s official policy and scholarly stances on the Indo-Pacific terminology and other associated discourses (including strategic documents on the Indo-Pacific published by other ASEAN Dialogue Partners), Beijing’s efforts to draw India and Southeast Asia away from the United States, and the impact of China’s domestic priorities on its foreign policy objectives.
