From Assertion to Accommodation?: Explaining China’s Evolving response to the Indo-Pacific Strategy

Abstract

The 'Indo-Pacific' as a new strategic frame of reference for regionalism has been gaining increasing popularity in recent times. Over the last decade, many nations have used this terminology in their official discourse, elevating the phase into a contemporary geo-political nomenclature. The term has a strong political connotation which reflects the conflict and competition in the regional geo-political outlook of two major powers in the Asia Pacific - the USA and China. While the USA plays a leading role in projecting the Indo-Pacific strategy to maintain its dominance in the region, China has emerged as its principal critique, perceiving the idea as US-led propaganda aimed towards the containment of China. With the involvement of the other regional states in the USA-China geo-political conflict on the Indo-Pacific idea, the latter is emerging as a major discourse in Asian regionalism.

In this context, the paper examines China's evolving policy towards the Indo-Pacific idea, especially one propagated by its principal regional and global competitor, the USA. The paper begins with a brief background of the USA-China competition in Asia. The next section analyses the evolution of the Indo-Pacific conception to contemporary times. The following section will place the USA-China competition in a study of Beijing's reaction to the Indo-Pacific concept, including its informal institutional mechanism, the Quad. The final section will highlight the transformation in China’s approach towards the Indo-Pacific idea in tune with its regionalism strategy. The paper will conclude with a brief outline of the future shape of China’s Indo-Pacific strategy and its impact on regional geo-politics.