Reversing Forwards into the Future?
I am fond of returning to Gordon G Chang's 2002 book "The Coming Collapse of China" (Arrow 2002) every once in a while, especially when the Western Foreign Policy Establishment makes their usual set of predictions of imminent implosion.
I don't have much use for driving via the rear view mirror, nor for viewing the world through the windscreen whilst reversing.
See you. My RJH to your RJH.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Davexl
Asia Times’ correspondent Richard Javad Heydarian
https://asiatimes.com/2021/06/benign...ad-over-asean/
....one could argue that the former Obama administration oversaw a “golden age” in US-ASEAN relations with few parallels.
And now, suddenly a lot of Obama-era officials, including Biden, were back in the saddle. So, quite naturally, many
expected for relations to become as nuanced, multifaceted, mutually respectful and long-term-oriented under the new US
administration.
With raised expectations came major disappointment. In its first two months in office, the Biden administration held
multiple high-level engagements with allies in Europe as well as with major Indo-Pacific powers of India, Australia,
Japan and, later, South Korea. At one point, a single week saw Biden and his “alter ego”, Secretary of State Antony
Blinken, holding multiple high-level talks.
That was shuttle diplomacy on steroids. And yet, the same administration didn’t even bother to mention its century-old
Southeast Asian treaty allies, the Philippines and Thailand, in its Interim National Security Strategic Guidance;
nor did Biden show any urgency in calling up his Southeast Asian partners.
It was only this week that he bothered to call the Filipino populist Rodrigo Duterte amid the deadlock in the renewal
of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA). This is what? Four months into the Biden administration already!
To add insult to injury, Blinken failed to make any visit to the region, recently dispatching his deputy (Wendy Sherman)
instead, though even that downgraded trip, itself coming on the heels of visits to Europe and the Middle East, skips
key regional states such as the Philippines and Vietnam.
His scheduled virtual meeting with ASEAN leaders, while on a red-eye trip from Europe to the Middle East was a disaster,
as technical glitches left enraged ASEAN foreign ministers waiting 45 minutes before blank screens. Meanwhile, top Chinese leaders, including President Xi Jinping, have kept sustained communications with Southeast Asian counterparts,
with Foreign Minister Wang Yi set for in-person meetings with ASEAN this month.resident Xi Jinping, have kept sustained communications with Southeast Asian counterparts, with Foreign Minister Wang Yi set for in-person meetings with ASEAN this month."