America's Next Big Challenge: Countering China’s Diplomatic Blitzkrieg

November 30, 2014 Topic: Foreign PolicyMilitary Strategy Region: ChinaUnited States

America's Next Big Challenge: Countering China’s Diplomatic Blitzkrieg

It is clear that China has combined proactive diplomacy with large-scale economic incentives to quell any regional backlash against its maritime assertiveness across the Western Pacific. What will Washington do?

There are signs that the Obama administration is worried by China’s economic offensive. Washington has reportedly opposed efforts by China to begin a feasibility study on the FTAAP, while America’s top Asian allies were reportedly encouraged to boycott the AIIB. Overall, however, it is clear that China has combined proactive diplomacy with large-scale economic incentives to quell any regional backlash against its maritime assertiveness across the Western Pacific. It remains to be seen how Washington aims to counter China’s latest diplomatic blitzkrieg.

Richard Javad Heydarian is an Assistant Professor in international affairs and political science at De La Salle University, and a policy advisor at the Philippine House of Representatives. He is the author of How Capitalism Failed the Arab World: The Economic Roots and Precarious Future of the Middle East Uprisings (Zed, London), and the forthcoming book The Philippines: The US, China, and the Struggle for Asia’s Pivot State (Zed, 2015). You can follow him on Twitter:@Richeydarian.