Delicate Balance of Power in the Asia-Pacific: The Obama Administration’s Strategic Rebalance and the Transformation of US-China Relationship

Abstract

The rise of China has transformed the global power balance and made the US-China relationship increasingly strategic and complicated. While some Americans are anxious about what China’s great power aspiration means for US interests, many Chinese are concerned about the US intention to keep China down. In this context, many in Beijing believe that the Obama administration’s strategic rebalance toward the Asia-Pacific is bent on hindering China’s rise as a great power. To what extent is the strategic rebalance about China? Is it part of the US strategy to contain China’s rise? Can the US and China function in relative power equality and build a balance of power to maintain peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific? Seeking answers to these important questions, this article argues that the strategic rebalance is a continuation of the long-standing struggle of the US to define its interests in the region. China remains a centerpiece in the rebalance not only because building a cooperative relationship with China is the key for its success, but also because the rebalance has to address the rapidly shifting balance of power in the region where China has emerged as an ever-more influential power. It is in US interests to work with its partners as well as China to construct a regional order based on the balance of power, and rules and institutions capable of allowing China to grow and be secured but not use its new might arbitrarily.