Those concerns are primed most recently by the new South Korean president’s decision to suspend deployment of a THAAD system.
U. S. leaders are increasingly worried that China is gaining influence over traditional American allies, as the rising Communist power charts a more aggressive foreign policy course.
Those concerns are primed most recently by the new South Korean president’s decision to suspend deployment of a U. S. missile defense system, known as a THAAD. American and South Korean officials agreed in recent years that the THAAD is necessary protection against North Korea, but China fears that the system could undermine the power of its own nuclear arsenal. So they demanded an „immediate“ halt to the deployment of the system, backed up by economic measures to hurt the South Korean economy.
South Korea complied, as the newly elected President Moon Jae-in suspended the deployment of the THAAD, citing the need for an environmental review of the program.
Moon’s decision spurred concerns in the U. S. „It’s my fear that he thinks — I hope I’m wrong — that [Moon] thinks that South Korea has a better chance working with China to contain North Korea than working with the United States, “ Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., told the Washington Examiner .
If Moon comes to regard China as a more reliable partner on his top national security issue — the threat of North Korea — that would represent a significant step away from the traditionally close cooperation between the United States and South Korea. And Moon isn’t the only leader in the region to trouble U. S. policymakers. President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines spent months last year railing against the Obama administration and calling for a „separation“ from the United States.
„China is going to have a heavy hand, “ predicted Rep. Ted Yoho, R-Fla., who chairs the Committee on Foreign Affairs‘ subcommittee on the Asia Pacific region. „China is going to want them to do what China says and I think Durbin is correct in that he is seeing Moon do that … He’s trying to appease the Chinese government, and we know how they’re going to play.
