alliances with Japan and the Philippines provide critical access and serve as force multipliers in the region. These gray zone efforts by China all share similar goals and demand greater coordination and information sharing among the United States and its partners.
Beijing’s support for nominally civilian actors, such as illegal dredging vessels around Kinmen and Matsu Islands, undermines Taiwan’s administrative control of its surroundings. In the Taiwan Strait, China’s aerial patrols are stretching the ability of the Republic of China Air Force to respond. This is straining Japanese coast guard readiness and challenging Tokyo’s administrative control over the islands and their surrounding waters. In the East China Sea, Beijing maintains almost continuous coast guard patrols around the Senkaku Islands, backed by its growing naval and militia forces. China’s strategic intent highlights the need for enhanced cooperation between the United States and its allies to address regional security issues, deter illegal maritime activities, and strengthen the use of international law to resolve disputes in the Indo-Pacific region.Ĭhina’s growing assertiveness in regional waters, including its completion of artificial island bases and militarization of those features in the South China Sea, has radically altered the balance of power, both in conventional military capabilities and in the gray zone short of armed conflict. alliance system and carve out vast exemptions to the established rules-based order, including in the maritime space. IntroductionĪs outlined in the 2022 National Defense Strategy (NDS), the United States is engaged in long-term strategic competition with China that is playing out with particular intensity in the Indo-Pacific. It is increasingly urgent that the United States and Japan strengthen the strategic foundations of their partnerships with the Philippines, highlight the mutual benefits of working together, and assess the role of trilateral cooperation in regional security. For Washington, there is no viable strategy for countering China’s illegal behavior in the East and South China Seas without robust cooperation with Tokyo and Manila, respectively.
China’s growing assertiveness in regional waters, including its completion of artificial island bases and militarization of those features in the South China Sea, has radically altered the balance of power in the Indo-Pacific.
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