The Strategic Game in Indo-Pacific Region and Its Impact on China’s Security

Abstract

Recently, the term of “Indo-Pacific” has often been mentioned by US, Japan, Australia as well as India. The Trump administration’s strategy for advancing a free and open Indo-Pacific, which aims to place multiple big powers or middle powers in the Great Chessboard of “Indo-Pacific” to cope with the rise of China and form a balance among major powers under the American hegemony. It can be said that the “Indo-Pacific” strategy is a continuation of “Asia-Pacific Rebalancing” and a new containment against China in the Indo-Pacific Region. It seems that China is excluded from the strategic system, but in fact it is not only involved, but also the main target of the “Indo-Pacific” strategic conception. The core region of this strategy includes the West Pacific and Bay of Bengal in the East Indian Ocean. The main intention of the US is to make India, Japan and Australia as the strategic strongholds, especially by taking the strategic advantage of India in the East Indian Ocean to exert pressure on the Western Pacific and squeeze China’s strategic space. In this strategic dynamics, China will not only inevitably be facing some pressures brought by the “hegemonic threat” in this region, but will also suffer a negative impact on China’s promotion of economic integration here, as well as the security order in the region. Although the “Indo-Pacific” strategy is at the conception stage, or more of a “strategic deterrent”, and there is still a lot of uncertainty in whether it can be implemented in the future, but the strategic game caused by the US’s regarding China as a competitor will continue. Based on this, China should regard the Pacific and Indian Ocean areas as a whole from the perspective of geo-economics and make plan in combination with the “Belt and Road”. China can take the advantages of its geo-economic advantages to explore positive factors in the “Indo-Pacific” geo-economy, accelerate the integration of the economies of the Indian Ocean and the Pacific regions and resolve the “security dilemma” in geopolitics with geo-economy as a breakthrough. China can create and utilize opportunities for cooperation with the countries in this region and appropriately expand the maritime rights and strategic space to serve the construction of “Belt and Road”, especially the 21st Maritime Silk Road.