Trans-Pacific View | Diplomacy | Southeast Asia

In Confronting China, The West Needs Partners in Southeast Asia

A plan to confront Beijing without subsequent outreach toward Southeast Asian countries will sacrifice national imperatives for willing partners, and those are hard to come by.

Leaders from across Southeast Asia will be meeting in Manila on November 10 for the upcoming ASEAN summit. This is the same date on which the China-U.S. trade truce was set to expire. While the September 24 summit between Presidents Xi Jinping and Donald Trump has widely been characterized as “heavy on pomp and light on substance,” it did deliver one tangible benefit: more time. The extension of the trade truce offers Washington a modicum of breathing room. With that extra time, engaging leaders at the ASEAN summit should be top of the U.S. priority list. 

Meanwhile, Europe is signaling a greater willingness to confront China’s unsustainable trading practices. The limits of this relationship must be managed, so that Western countries can reindustrialize and regain market share. However, that effort should not come at the cost of compromising economic partnerships with countries in Asia. 

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Leaders from across Southeast Asia will be meeting in Manila on November 10 for the upcoming ASEAN summit. This is the same date on which the China-U.S. trade truce was set to expire. While the September 24 summit between Presidents Xi Jinping and Donald Trump has widely been characterized as “heavy........

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