The US policy of engagement with China and its entire Asia-Pacific security strategy may be jeopardised by the regional economic crisis, former US defence secretary William Perry said yesterday.
American policies in the region were being questioned as allies such as Japan struggled to deal with the crisis, Mr Perry said at a luncheon organised by the Asia Society at the Marriott Hotel.
He said the 20-year-old Asia-Pacific security policy 'may have run out of steam'.
Mr Perry expressed concern that China in the next century might follow the path of Japan in the 1930s as a 'rising economic, political and military power in the Pacific', which 'inevitably created a conflict of interest with the other Pacific powers, in particular with the US'.
While there was a vocal minority in the US opposing engagement with China, 'a small but influential group' also existed in the mainland which saw the engagement policy as offering 'a false sense of security, thereby weakening the political support and strength in the Chinese military', Mr Perry said.
Describing Taiwan as the potential flashpoint in Sino-US relations, Mr Perry said the island had taken over from Russia as 'the highest priority of China's national security policy'.
