Balancing China in the Indo-Pacific

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On Tuesday, January 18 we hosted our first webinar of 2022. CIS scholar Sue Windybank spoke to leading strategic analysts, C. Raja Mohan and Renato Cruz De Castro, to discuss China’s increasingly aggressive posture in the Indo-Pacific as well as the emergence of balancing coalitions to prevent Beijing from dominating the region.

Beijing has been betting on the fact that it is much easier to disrupt and break up coalitions than to build and sustain them. But to date, its efforts to bully, coerce and intimidate members into distancing themselves from Washington have largely backfired with Canberra, Delhi, Manila and others all drawing closer to America.

Will Beijing double down on these efforts as Sino-American security competition intensifies? Can Washington maintain a unity of purpose both at home and abroad amongst diverse coalition members? Has the balance of power already tilted in China’s favour? Or has Beijing miscalculated and overplayed its hand?

C. Raja Mohan is Director of the Institute of South Asian Studies at the National University of Singapore. The author of several books on India foreign policy, he is also a regular columnist for Foreign Policy and The Indian Express.

Renato Cruz De Castro is a Professor at the International Studies Department, De La Salle University, Manila, and holds the Dr. Aurelio Calderon Chair in Philippine-American Relations.

Sue Windybank is Commissioning Editor at CIS and manages the contribution of external authors to the Centre’s main research programs, with a particular focus on China. Prior to this, Sue was Editor of CIS’s quarterly journal, POLICY.