Yearender: US Adjusts Asia Pacific Policy for New Century

During the threshold year toward the new century, the United States has adopted an aggressive approach of building a new geopolitical landscape in the Asia Pacific region to serve its strategic needs and help ensure its dominant role in global affairs.

Improving Ties With Former Foes

Based on continued efforts over the past couple of years, Washington has made major breakthroughs in 2000 in improving bilateral relations with many Asian countries, especially with its Cold War foes in the region.

On the Korean peninsula, while supporting South Korean President Kim Dae-Jung's "Sunshine" policy toward Pyongyang, Washington has moved to relax economic sanctions against the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) step by step and provide humanitarian assistance to the country.

In a context of eased tension on the peninsula, Cho Myong Rok, first vice-chairman of DPRK National Defense Commission, paid a historic visit to Washington in the capacity of special envoy of DPRK leader Kim Jong-Il last October.

In a joint communique signed during Cho's stay in Washington, the United States and DPRK agreed to undertake "a new direction" in their relations and committed themselves to making every effort in the future to build a new relationship free from past enmity.

US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, in return, paid a visit to Pyongyang about two weeks later. Moreover, US President Bill Clinton has expressed on several occasions his willingness to visit Pyongyang.

In Southeast Asia, Washington has taken a progressive step to normalize relations with Vietnam, with which the United States fought a decade-long war during the 1960s and early 1970s.

Since the United States lifted 30-year-long economic sanctions against the Cold War rival in 1994, the United States and Vietnam have made joint efforts to accelerate the normalization process highlighted by last July's landmark trade deal which paves the way for Vietnam to accede to the World Trade Organization.

Four months later, Clinton became the first US president to have his footprints in Hanoi since the end of the Vietnam War in the early 1970s.

Being aware of India's growing economic clout and strategic importance, Washington has adjusted its South Asia policy and begun to tilt toward New Delhi since early 1997, abandoning its long-held "balanced" approach to treat India and Pakistan as regional peer powers.

"Preventive Diplomacy" Backed by Military Build-up

The United States has resorted to an active and bi-directional approach to safeguard what it views as its security interests in the Asia Pacific region through so-called "preventive diplomacy."

On one hand, it committed itself to expanding military exchanges and security dialogue at different levels with countries such as China, Vietnam, Australia, the Philippines, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, South Korea and Japan.

On the other hand, the US reached out to consolidate its defensive alliances and quietly stepped up its military buildup in the region.

In 2000 alone, it conducted over 50 joint military exercises in the region with its allies of the Philippines, Thailand, South Korea, Japan and Australia, unprecedented since the end of the Cold War in terms of frequency and scale.

Meanwhile, it also started to deploy air-borne conventional cruise missiles and build front-line backup bases for strategic bombers such as B-2 at Guam in the Pacific Ocean and Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, giving itself a capability of striking anywhere in the region within 12 hours.

Despite of strong opposition from many Asian and Pacific nations, it continued cooperation with Japan in developing the controversial Theater Missile Defense (TMD) system for future deployment in the region.

However, the United States also faces great challenges to maintain its military presence and justify its aggressive military deployment in the region.

As the tension on the Korean peninsula eases, more and more people in South Korea and Japan believe that the United States should reduce its armed forces stationed in the two countries.

The rape of a 14-year-old Japanese schoolgirl by an American soldier on Okinawa last July sparked widespread protests against the US military presence there.

Aiming at Economic Gains

The United States has spared no efforts to tap the potential of the huge markets in the Asia Pacific region so as to benefit from the robust regional economy.

It not only promotes multilateral trade at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum, but also seeks to strengthen bilateral trade relations with some emerging markets in the region.

After years of negotiations, the United States clinched bilateral trade agreement with China in November 1999, and with Vietnam last July. And negotiations with Singapore on a similar trade deal are expected to conclude in early 2001.

With an eye on India's huge market and its booming IT industry, Washington has also strengthened its economic ties with New Delhi.

During Clinton's historic trip to the South Asian country in March, the two sides signed 4 billion U.S. dollars worth trade and investment agreements.

Basically speaking, economic and security interests are two primary factors which have shaped the U.S. Asia Pacific policy in the past several years.

Regarding economic strength as essential to its superpower status, the United States could not resist the huge and lucrative markets in the region, especially those emerging markets of China,India and Vietnam.

Statistics released by the US Department of Commerce shows that the past decade have witnessed a steady growth of US exports to Asian Pacific countries as well as US direct investments in the region.

Significantly, America's two-way trade with other Asian Pacific nations have surpassed that with the European Union by a remarkable margin in the past few years.






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