If anything, the U. S.-China rivalry on open display has made the situation even more complex.
Going into last week’s ASEAN summitry in Singapore there were hopes that some progress would be made on the U. S.-China-ASEAN complex of disputes in the South China Sea. But the summits have come and gone and, if anything, the situation in the South China Sea is more complicated than before. Although the contentiousness of the disputes between China and ASEAN claimants has waned, the U. S.-China rivalry for dominance has supplanted them as the preeminent security issue for ASEAN and the region. Indeed, ASEAN-China political relations, and in particular their negotiations on a Code of Conduct for the South China Sea (COC), are now conflated with — and will be strongly influenced by — the U. S.-China rivalry.
In the months preceding the summits, the United States and China had already stepped up their contest of words and actions.
Then the long-anticipated second U. S.-China Diplomatic and Security Dialogue, held on November 9, came and went with no apparent progress on any of the dangerous issues between them – especially their confrontation in the South China Sea.
Observers in both countries had hoped that meeting would lead to some tension-lowering agreements or at least public statements from both to that effect. For example, Zhao Minghao, writing in the Global Times, said, “It is expected this dialogue will ease the rising tensions between Beijing and Washington, or at least pause the escalating Sino-U. S. friction.” Randall Schriver, a top Pentagon official for Asia, said the talks would include “’risk reduction’ efforts that the two countries can undertake, which aim to drive down the chance of an inadvertent clash,” in Reuter’s paraphrasing. However, in actuality, the two delegations mainly talked past each other, bluntly restating their sharply opposing positions. Tensions remained high.
Hopes for an improved South China Sea situation via the ASEAN summits were dashed even before the meetings began. On his way to Singapore, U. S. Vice President Mike Pence called out China, saying that if it wants to avoid an all-out cold war with the United States, it must change its behavior. When he arrived in Southeast Asia, he told the ASEAN leaders that “empire and aggression have no place in the Indo-Pacific,” presumably a warning to China.
