US pivot sparks Asian arms race

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http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/OA17Ae01.html

MANILA - Against the backdrop of renewed large-scale US military sales to Asian allies, and with newly re-elected US President Barack Obama choosing the region as his first official foreign destination, regional maritime disputes between China and Southeast Asian states are poised to intensify in the months ahead.

Under the new leadership of Xi Jinping, China has progressively buttressed its maritime claims across the South and East China Seas on both diplomatic and military fronts. Other Pacific powers, namely Japan and India, have also begun to deepen their strategic engagements with Southeast Asian partners, including through the Association of Southeast Asian Nations' (ASEAN) multilateral mechanisms.

The Obama administration signaled the formal commencement of
the US's "pivot", or what officials in Washington commonly refer to as a "rebalancing" towards Asia, in November 2011 when the president stated to the Australian parliament: "As a Pacific nation, the United States will play a larger and long-term role in shaping this region and its future."

The key strategic aim of the "pivot", experts contend, is to contain China's maritime assertiveness and protect freedom of navigation in the Western Pacific, a global artery for trade and energy transportation. Yet the US's strategic re-focus on Asia has paradoxically not only strengthened the hands of Chinese hawks calling for a more muscular counter-strategy but also emboldened the US's regional partners, namely Japan, Philippines, and Vietnam, to push their claims more aggressively.