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Shifting Perception of the ‘China Threat’ in America

Implications for Domestic American Psyche, Politics and Asia

Adjunct Professor, Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies, Nanyang Technological University and Council Member of the Singapore Institute of International Affairs (SIIA), 2 Nassim Road, Singapore 258370. E-mail: sldeet{at}singnet.com.sg.

At the invitation of the US State Department to visit Washington DC and New York in the second week of May 2006, the writer delivered a series of lectures to major US think tanks and met senior State Department officials (and also wrote this article in mid 2006), with a view towards understanding how America views, perceives and reacts to ‘emerging Asia’ and a ‘rising China’, which many believe could drastically change the current international economic and political landscape in the next five to ten years. The writer's particular interest was focused on America's appraisal of the ‘China threat’ today, as extensively made out in the American media over the past two years. The discussions also centred on how Americans perceive the evolving regional Asian architecture (especially when the United States was conspicuously excluded from the East Asia Summit in Kuala Lumpur on 14 December 2005), and the future place of the United States in Asia (especially in contending with significant Chinese ‘advances’ into Southeast Asia). What was discovered was surprisingly three major findings or confirmations, namely, a metamorphosing ‘China threat’ perception in the United States, a feeling of exclusion of the United States from this ‘emerging Asia’, and a ‘decline of Washington's clout and influence in Southeast Asia and in Central Asia’. All these three factors of shift would have severe implications for the American people and market, as well as for Asia.

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