US-China: Is A New NATO Emerging In Asia? | When Titans Clash 2 - Part 1/3 | CNA Documentary

[Music] [Music] [Music] to equate nato to the quad really doesn't make sense a new arc of autocrat is instinctively aligning to challenge and reset the world order in their own image [Music] i can assure you no u.s president will send any single american soldier to fight for the independence of taiwan china china coast guard innovation coast guard calling if you ask me is our relationship normal today my answer to you is no it is not and it cannot be normal if the situation in the border areas is abnormal this is a new world disorder watch out there is definitely a danger of war [Music] july 2021 a major naval exercise is hosted by the u.s and ukraine in the black sea region the exercise involves navies from 32 countries when a british destroyer enters what russia considers its territorial waters russia is provoked and almost fires at the british battleship president putin started the war in ukraine but some analysts point to examples like this to back the claim that nato's behavior provoked russia certainly nato expansionism is not a valid reason for invading a country any invasion of another sovereign state unless it's an act of self-defense or endorsed by the u.n security council is by definition illegal many in china have a different view of how events transpired the chinese government's narrative puts the responsibility on the u.s and nato for the ukraine crisis as cities in ukraine burn and millions flee the chinese media runs stories with quite a the united nations declares it's not aware of any biological weapons programs but the story continues to be pursued in china and the u.s embassy's weibo social media site gets inundated with hate messages [Music] chinese public opinion on the u.s which was bad to begin with plunges to a new low [Music] over in the u.s a momentous shift in u.s public attitudes toward china also took place as the ukraine war continued a poll observes the proportion of americans seeing china as their greatest enemy it doubles in just a year from 22 in 2021 to 45 in 2022 7th of march 2022 the day of chinese foreign minister wang yi's annual media briefing [Music] that is some strong language by foreign minister wang yi your comments please well one thing we should be very clear about is that the biggest geopolitical contest of all time in human history has just broken out between the united states and china whenever major geopolitical contest breaks out watch out there is definitely a danger of war and that's precisely why everybody has to be very careful and work hard to avoid the war before it breaks out and we mustn't put our head in the sand like an ostrich and say hey everything is okay no everything is not okay [Music] the indo-pacific strategy was announced by the biden administration and its key thrusts include a free and open indo-pacific supporting india's continued rise in regional leadership strengthening the quad strengthening extended deterrence with japan and south korea expanding u.s coast guard presence contributing to an empowered asean and closing the region's infrastructure gap through build back better world with g7 partners the strategy paper does not mince its words competition with china is stated as an urgent challenge the united states is a proud part of the indo-pacific and this region is critically important to our nation's security and prosperity our exports to the region support four million american jobs and in 2019 the united states conducted nearly two trillion dollars of two-way trade here all of which underscores america's connection to the indo-pacific in this region we have long put forward a vision of peace and stability freedom on the seas unimpeded commerce advancing human rights a commitment to the international rules-based order we know that beijing continues to coerce to intimidate and to make claims to the vast majority of the south china sea and beijing's actions continue to undermine the rules-based order and threaten the sovereignty of nations the united states stands with our allies and partners in the face of these threats [Music] diamonds this is very dangerous because such attempts may not only miscalculate and may also lead to very dangerous causes of action now with ukraine in the middle of this war hundreds of millions of people are suffering millions of people are fleeing the country for example we need to realize the value of peace and stability we do not want to be hijacked by any single big country in the world onto the bandwagon of war the indo-pacific region is much more heterogeneous than nato they have the same political systems they have similar economic standards and and they're well integrated into into each other's economy where southeast asia and japan and korea we have a variety of government styles we have a variety of commitments to democracy a variety of development levels to equate nato to nato to the quad it really doesn't make sense when parties reference nato they're actually often referring to article 5 which states that there is mutual defense in the event of an attack of any one state the u.s knows that it would be a fool's errand to seek to bind countries in the region to a mutual defense treaty because you know southeast asian countries in particular all have different interests and different positions vis-a-vis china as well as one another i do not think that the us is trying to build nato in southeast asia [Music] [Music] as a majority of australians condemn russian action in ukraine australia's leader makes an important speech about a possible new world order our rules-based international order built upon the principles and values that guide our own nation has for decades supported peace and stability and allowed sovereign nations to pursue their interests free from coercion this is now under assault a new arc of autocracy is instinctively aligning to challenge them and reset the world order in their own image a day after the speech the australian government announces plans to build a nuclear-powered submarine base on the country's east coast the cost 10 billion australian dollars the base will facilitate the docking of nuclear submarines like this one the sudden announcement of plans for the base is an acceleration of what was originally an 18-month evaluation the august agreement was signed between the us uk and australia in september 2021. under august the united states and britain will assist australia in its acquisition of nuclear-powered submarines australia's top intelligence chief warned that china is intent on establishing global preeminence and says its troubling strategic convergence with russia will pose new threats to liberal democracies like australia [Music] trump how did ties between australia and china get so bad from 2009 to 2019 trade between china and australia tripled transforming china into australia's largest trade partner china has also emerged as australia's largest source of international students and mandarin as australia's second most spoken language in 2014 both countries even described their relationship as a comprehensive strategic partnership and signed a free trade agreement [Music] in 2017 54 of australians pool had trust in china to act responsibly in the world so between 2009 and 2019 australia's trade with china tripled that was largely driven by this huge increase in demand for products particularly commodities that helped to fuel china's growth two-way trade between australia and china was extraordinarily high forty percent of outbound trade from australia went up north to beijing that's one of the highest levels of trade uh between advanced countries and even between any countries in the world then in 2017 trouble started there was first a government study and then it began to work out into the public that there was increasing chinese state interference inside of australia there was a well-publicized story of an australian politician an australian senator taking money from a ccp linked entity and then copying china's talking points in contravention to where his own party stood 1.2 million australians are chinese or of chinese ancestry now what we saw was increasingly the chinese government was reaching into various ethnic communities a number of different ways so first of all working to control the chinese language presses making sure that individuals and companies had no funding for independent journalism if they said anything that was contrary to the line of the chinese state media organs number two we saw that increasingly within communication systems wechat and others that various channels of conversation were shut down on particularly around election time when anyone said something that was in contravention to how china viewed this situation at one point several years ago australia was in the midst of negotiating an extra territoriality agreement with the chinese whether or not you know those who have been accused or convicted of crimes can be exported back to their own countries this was a contentious debate within australia particularly as china looked increasingly authoritarian at home but the minister of state security from china was down talking about this and called in labor who was in the opposition and to labor leadership said you need to support this because if not it would be awful if the entire ethnic uh a chinese population in australia all of a sudden left you and supported a different party that is not even a veiled threat that's an out and out threat to change your domestic politics to make sure that they align with what china wants and that set off alarm bells within labor party no less within the government the liberal party as well yes in 2018 52 of australians poll had trust in china to act responsibly in the world that same year australia passed the espionage and foreign interference act which was implicitly directed at china the government also announced that huawei and zte were not allowed to build the 5g network in australia then in 2020 the pandemic gripped the world when the australian government suggested an independent investigation into where the virus started and how it spread china was and remains outraged canberra's relationship with beijing is now at rock bottom what followed was a trade war beijing has launched a second investigation into australian wine imports accusing canberra of giving subsidies to give firms an edge over local rivals australia says a coal import ban by china would be a clear breach of wto rules china has suspended indefinitely high-level economic talks with australia beijing says the decision affects all activities under the china-australia's strategic economic dialogue in 2020 23 of australians poll had trust in china to act responsibly in the world 77 did not trust china to act responsibly now when that economic hammer began to come down you can see widespread anger and a push swelling up from the ground up that the australian government needs to do more to promote trade with other countries in 2021 16 of australians polled had trust in china to act responsibly in the world 84 did not trust china to act responsibly in september 2021 august was formed [Music] our world is becoming more complex especially here in our region the indo-pacific this affects us all the future of the indo-pacific will impact all our futures and so friends orchestra a new enhanced trilateral security partnership between australia the united kingdom and the united states orcas a partnership where our technology our scientists our industry our defence forces are all working together to deliver a safer and more secure region that ultimately benefits all the first major initiative of august will be to deliver a nuclear-powered submarine fleet for australia the uk australia and the us will be joined even more closely together reflecting the measure of trust between us the depth of our friendship and the enduring strength of our shared values of freedom and democracy so arcus has broad bipartisan support in australia in fact both the government that signed it and the opposition party have signaled that they are on board for this and all three countries britain the uk and the united states are working overtime to make sure that the way that they go about setting up the nuclear propulsion submarines does not enhance nuclear proliferation and in fact might even be able to strengthen it by limiting it just to this technology and making sure that there are no bleed on effects to nuclear weapons that's not what this is although there's a lot of dis disinformation in the system that this is a gateway to a nuclear weapons program which both parties have said it is not and they will not continue it if it is 10 billion dollars to spend on nuclear submarines is a lot of money do australians really believe that china is going to sail all the way down under and launch an offensive what's happened in the south china sea has not stayed in the south china sea and as china has continued to build up their military forces they've continued to push outward and further down and closer to australia so we've seen multiple attempts by the chinese to do a similar spate of building that they conduct in the south china sea in the south pacific we've seen discussions and talks about whether or not there would be a dual-use military commercial base in papua new guinea in vanuatu and even just this past month in the solomon islands all of these are much closer to australia the orcas treaty is a very dangerous thing because australia for all these decades has claimed itself to be a very proud member of the non-nuclear proliferation treaty and a proud member of the south pacific nuclear-free zone and as a result they benefited hugely from this and i think now at urging of the united states and united kingdom the australian government wants to deprive the australian people their rare privilege of living in this bubble of nuclear-free south pacific or protection of the nuclear free non-proliferation treaty this is dangerous for the australian people as well as for countries and peoples in our part of the world submarines are stealthy but trade agreements are stealthier so it's much better to protect security in this region by countries developing patterns of cooperation and interdependence as we are going to do with the world's largest free trade agreement the regional comprehensive economic partnership that was uh launched in january 2022 with by the way australia japan south korea china uh also as members of this trade agreement the quad or quadrilateral security dialogue has australia japan india and the us as member countries there are joint military exercises parallel to the dialogue like exercise malabar a naval exercise conducted off the coast of guam the exercise began in 1992 between the indian and u.s navies japan has been a permanent partner in the exercise since 2015. in the 2021 edition of exercise malabar australia participated for the second time as the malabar exercise drew to a close in 2021 india rolled out the red carpet for u.s defense officials in new delhi meridian pintoda the quad countries present a different point of view besides military exercises and security discussions the quad includes cooperation on vaccine partnerships climate change action counterterrorism and infrastructure development if you looked at the quad three or four years ago it would have been focused more on maritime security today the quad has evolved to focus on the provision of public goods so vaccine production in india and distribution to emerging countries the provision of infrastructure and connectivity aid to southeast asia and south asia and we also see now investment in the selective diversification of supply chains throughout the region so i think that is important from japan's point of view in that it's providing a public good to the critical re partners as japan understands in the indo-pacific and that southeast asia and south asia without shifting away from a security view of the quad it's not going to get buy-in from southeast asian countries vietnam indonesia malaysia singapore the quad members have collectively pledged to donate more than 1 billion doses of vaccines globally by the end of 2022. [Music] in southeast asia a hotbed of u.s china rivalry the quad has gotten a mixed response southeast asia in general has been more wary about the more muscular security oriented dimensions of the u.s into pacific strategy and the quad is one of that or at least was one of that um i think their main concern with the quad was that it would heighten tensions in the region especially vis-a-vis china i think the quadrilateral security dialogue has also positioned itself it's moved away from its more militaristic elements to focusing on areas that asean cares more about so areas like pandemic recovery and that by demonstrating a sensitivity to the region's needs i think the position on the quad dialogue has softened somewhat [Music] the quad disease is somewhat of a mystery if you talk to the members of quad they deny that it is an anti-china alliance but everybody in the world perceives the quad to be an anti-china alliance and it creates this rather strange situation where the four countries deny that it is aimed against china but the perception is that it is against china which is why if you notice not many other east asian countries uh have volunteered to join it and so uh it's therefore important for the members of the quad to actually explain what exactly is the end game of the quad if you look at the uh last quad foreign minister's joint statement asean centrality was right up at the top everybody understands that the thing that brings the four quad members together is their shared anxieties about china but the quad members also understand that the way they prove that they're worth siding with is by delivering public goods might there be deeper engagement between asean and the quad developments in the south china sea are likely to steer the conversation china coast guard china coast guard coast guard calling one hour away from singapore work has commenced on a u.s funded indonesian maritime training center the training center will be owned and operated by indonesia's maritime security agency bakum [Music] berkamla is a coordinating board for maritime security it's an inter agencies department responsible to safeguarding the maritime security indonesia and it involves navy the ministry of fisheries as well as other ministries relevant ministries it is led by a navy admiral indonesian navy plays a big role in the day-to-day work at bakamla but um the location is very strategic it is close to the strait of malacca as well as the south china sea indonesia needs to upgrade its navy and also its maritime capacity having defense cooperation is one of the best ways for the purpose and we are aware that the u.s has a lot at stake in defending the freedom of navigation in the state of malacca and the south china sea [Music] according to the u.s department of state indonesia received nearly 39 million dollars in the year 2020 from the u.s part of the funds are targeted for spending on military education military financing and security assistance the bakum law project is of significance because bakum law is the agency tasked with overseeing indonesia's territorial waters and its exclusive economic zone bakama has intensified sea patrols in recent years after chinese fishing boats escorted by the chinese coast guard sailed into what indonesia regards as its territory beijing of course has a different view on who owns these seas china coast guard china coast guard innovation coast guard calling magic this is hanako yes sir please move away and go back to your territory sir no no we are coming out portugal in this area another justification of the people republic of china china has an imputable sovereignty over the island in south china sea i order you so to leave this territory i order you to leave this territory take your fishing board or leave them away this event occurred at the natuna islands in the south china sea china claims most of the south china sea as its traditional fishing grounds around october 2021 china sent a diplomatic correspondence to indonesia demanded indonesia to halt the drilling activities in the national waters it's oil drilling it's uh for for indonesia park so we have drilling activities within the national waters within our maritime rights they said it it is within their so-called historic rights [Music] i think this is a bit unfortunate for both sides because in my opinion china should not drag indonesia further into the whirlpool of the south china sea the waters in the philippines are much more turbulent in may 2021 close to 200 chinese vessels were moored in the contested area in the south china sea prompting fears that beijing was building a naval base there we now understand why it is that the philippine authorities now have taken such a tone of concern and a ton of defiance against china in terms of what's going on in the west philippine sea we saw nothing less than what you would call a swarm of chinese vessels particularly in areas that are close to the artificial islands that are built by china uh one particular reef was quite unsettling to see it's called gavin reef around it you could see easily a hundred ships and it's it's quite hard to be accurate about it from a moving plane up above especially since some of these ships are being tied together um as edges to appear as one group we saw similar formations in the bullion tradition just a few weeks ago responding to the events in may 2021 the foreign affairs secretary used less than diplomatic language he later apologized more recently in march 2022 a chinese coast guard vessel sailed dangerously close to another vessel from the philippine coast guard with a distance of just about 19 meters accidents are not unlikely in the last year or so there have been a lot of movements in the west philippine sea concerning chinese militia chasing filipino fishermen who are fishing in our own waters when we speak of filipino fishermen usually these are just small boats trawlers they're not organized at all the militia on the other hand they have been proven to be organized efforts they have bigger boats more sophisticated technology and equipment so they can really track down where where the filipino fisher folks are and chase them down or chase them away from supposedly chinese waters many believe it is china's assertiveness in the south china sea that is giving a boost to the u.s indo-pacific strategy and things like orcas when you talk about the south china sea just allow me to make several very brief points we do not need to go further into asian time we can just go to the end of the second world war i do not need to remind all of us that during the second world war japan was occupying all the islands and reefs and the talls in the south china sea when japan unconditionally surrendered in 1945 do you know to whom japan surrendered all the islands and reefs and atolls in the south china sea japan unconditionally surrendered everything to china why because it was dictated partially by the united states it was because during the second world war china was the only country standing on its feet in this part of the world fighting against japanese occupation in 1945 there were no independent vietnam there was no independent malaysia there was no independent philippines there was no independent indonesia for example all these were still colonies okay this is a bit sensitive but i'm trying to to clarify this okay no available historical record can show if china performed uninterrupted continuous [Music] act of sovereignty over the spartly islands prior to the japanese occupation in 1939 and after the second world war japan relinquished the title over the spartly islands but it was not clear whether any party or any state would inherit the claim so there is no historical document that supports our beijing's claim the permanent court of arbitration at the hague dismissed beijing's claim to much of the south china sea in 2016. baby as filipinos go to the polls the issue has been a subject of debate if you look at existing public opinion surveys a lot of filipinos would like a government that would be more assertive that would use the arbitral ruling that would exhaust all means and and that would not adopt a defeatist attitude towards the issue simply because we're up against a a major power and in this campaign i think a lot of the presidential candidates are tapping into that by saying that i will be stronger than the current president the current administration i would be more assertive in 2020 my colleagues and i conducted a study on perceptions of the filipino strategic community regarding which country would be our preferred partner a majority of them actually said that they prefer to be partners with japan the united states and australia so these are our traditional partners china is way down in the list of preferred partners [Music] the china factor does play a very big role in the balikatan exercises they are also holding exercises regarding patriot missiles of the united states so we can assume that this is part of the different theater scenarios and this is likely in preparation for china's next move in taiwan or whatever might happen in the south china sea [Music] the russia-ukraine conflict or war has been a an important uh debate in the philippines there's this chilling effect to a lot of other small states that if um behavior like this by superpowers are tolerated then no small state is safe a lot of people are saying that now there's an opportunity for other hegemonic powers to also flex their muscle and impose their view of regional orders here in asia particularly china and uh given its uh assertiveness in the south china sea for example [Applause] if for example after the may 2022 elections existing military arrangements with the united states would be reinvigorated that means that u.s presence would be what we will see in the coming years because prior to the end of the cold war the largest military installations outside u.s territory is in the philippines uh the subic naval base and the clark airfield were critical in the projection of u.s military power in its wars in korea in vietnam and in other places in the asia pacific in case of a flashpoint happening in the taiwan strait then the philippines can be requested for this logistical hubs to be used but i think it really depends whether the new administration after the may 2022 elections will be a bit more open or flexible to this the united states made a major mistake in underestimating duterte's chances and not developing a relationship with him before he took office so then washington was blindsided by this new president's anti-americanism when anybody could have told him that duterte had been anti-american since his college days i think now you're going to see the u.s much more aware of the fact that the alliance is strategically too important to play games with like this the u.s must engage with whoever wins and look americans don't get to vote it doesn't matter if the us government likes a certain philippine president it doesn't matter if that would have been their preference the us government's job is to uphold the alliance commitment to the philippine people whoever their president is the philippines and the us are now beginning to have the kind of conversations that the u.s has had with japan and korea and australia and nato for three decades and part of that conversation is obviously what are the philippines responsibilities including if there were a contingency in taiwan that involved danger to american service members [Music] phobia ancients has your general um southeast asian countries need to stop thinking or stop framing their choice so much as a choice between the united states and china rather they need to think about the choice that lays before them as one that um supports rules-based international order and the rule of law or a world where you know might becomes right and to me the choice is very clear in that situation i choose the former i would not like to see the world and particularly not the region descending into a situation where might is right and we've seen um what happens in a scenario such as that in the case of russia's invasion of ukraine there's a new giant in our neighborhood but that doesn't mean we kowtow but we must we must speak to them clearly and firmly but not provocatively and that can be done you know i was a diplomat for 33 years they say that a definition of a diplomat is someone who can tell you to go to hell in such a way that he feels he's going to enjoy the journey to health now this is the art we have to learn to do we have to tell china to go to hell on some issues like the south china sea but we do it in such a way that the chinese are going to enjoy the journey so that's what diplomacy is about there's gonna be [Music]

Channel: CNA Insider

Views: 768,473

Keywords: Channel NewsAsia, asia news, cna documentary, politics, geopolitical, south china sea, us china, indo pacific strategy, quad, qsd, aukus, nato, southeast asia, war in asia

Id: -d2GPC1SEOI

Length: 46min 58sec (2818 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 29 2022