Written by foreign policy graduate Percy Spender, find more of his content on 𝕏 @PercySpender
The resurgence of North Korea coupled with increasingly bold Chinese military drills are just the latest stage in the escalating tensions between East and West. As covered in my article a few weeks ago, North Korea’s new security agreement with Russia has introduced an added dimension in the escalation between the two blocs on the Korean Peninsula.
China has conducted joint military drills with nations adversarial to the United States before, Iran being the most prominent example. These drills can be justified more as protections of sea trade, in particular oil imports from the Gulf of Oman, which China is dependent on. However, the latest exercises conducted alongside the Belarussian military are the most egregious yet. Acting as a gesture that China is committing more to the budding Sino-Russo alliance, and these exercises suggest that the People’s Liberation Army is familiarising itself with Ukraine-like conditions, perhaps indicating China’s willingness to enter the Ukraine conflict if the NATO powers were to do so.
Last week, The Philippines and Japan penned a security agreement over concerns regarding China’s growing military power. The new defence agreement will effectively cut through bureaucratic procedures and allow for quicker deployment of their forces on one another’s soil. Signalling a strengthening of the first island chain, the deal will streamline closer military collaboration and integration between the two nations and encourage joint military exercises. Such a bolstering is crucial to the United States-led anti-China coalition's strategic aim of containing China.
This defence agreement is emblematic of the United States’ strategic pivot to Asia, where they have spent the year bolstering the anti-China coalition. Largely beginning in April, where Filipino president Ferdinand Marcos along with Japanese Prime Minister Kishida met with Joe Biden at the White House. The meeting laid the groundwork for a strengthening of ties and fostering of cooperation between the three. This latest announcement will surely further inflame tensions in the Indo-Pacific.
The central node of this tension, Taiwan, has experienced a sharp rise in airspace violations by China, which has undergone a sixfold increase since the beginning of the year. China has blamed the United States for escalating tensions between China and the Western-aligned Southeast Asian nations.
Lin Jian, China’s Foreign Minister Spokesman made a statement that ran,
“the Indo-Pacific region is not your Europe. The United States should stop creating tensions in the Indo-Pacific region, stop promoting a Cold War mentality and bloc-confrontations. The United States must avoid causing chaos in the region, like they have done so in Europe.”
China has also recently announced they will expand on their rampant coastal military exercises to hold drills further north, closer to Japan, and that Russia will be joining. A clear provocation and response to the new agreement between Japan and the Philippines. Japan has since fired back with strong rhetoric. The Japanese defence minister claimed that drills around Japan elicit “grave concern,” as well as that North Korea “poses a greater threat than ever.”
Australia has been involved in numerous military drills with the Philippines. Recently the Filipino Air Force trained with American and Australian aircraft in Australia, which was the first foreign deployment in 60 years. There was also a combined Australian, American, Japanese and Filipino Navy exercise in the South China Sea earlier in the year. Furthermore, Australia announced a massive aid package for Ukraine, the largest Australia has sent so far, constituting $250 million worth of air defence and air-to-ground munitions.
The United States is busy at work strengthening the ties between key allies in their Chinese containment strategy. Couple this with Russia becoming more active in East Asian affairs, this indicates that the two major poles of geopolitical tension in Eastern Europe and the Indo-Pacific, are becoming further intertwined. One strains to imagine a de-escalatory path where these blocs can dissipate the mounting tensions escalation. Though Australia stands as the United States stalwart ally in the Indo-Pacific, envisioning Australia escaping from this out-of-control vortex is difficult.
i live in America and I want the jwo gone.