Japanese warship JS Izumo, seen here in May 2017, has been carrying out joint exercises in the South China with ships from the navies of India, the Philippines and the US. Photo: Kyodo Japanese warship JS Izumo, seen here in May 2017, has been carrying out joint exercises in the South China with ships from the navies of India, the Philippines and the US. Photo: Kyodo
Japanese warship JS Izumo, seen here in May 2017, has been carrying out joint exercises in the South China with ships from the navies of India, the Philippines and the US. Photo: Kyodo
William Choong
Opinion

Opinion

William Choong

America and Japan’s vision of an Indo-Pacific free from Chinese threat runs into deep waters

  • The ‘free and open Indo-Pacific strategy’ most stridently championed by the US is to some extent supported by members of the Quad security bloc, but Asean refuses to be drawn into any configuration which focuses on a putative China threat

William Choong
William Choong

Updated: 9:00am, 23 May, 2019

Why you can trust SCMP
Japanese warship JS Izumo, seen here in May 2017, has been carrying out joint exercises in the South China with ships from the navies of India, the Philippines and the US. Photo: Kyodo Japanese warship JS Izumo, seen here in May 2017, has been carrying out joint exercises in the South China with ships from the navies of India, the Philippines and the US. Photo: Kyodo
Japanese warship JS Izumo, seen here in May 2017, has been carrying out joint exercises in the South China with ships from the navies of India, the Philippines and the US. Photo: Kyodo
READ FULL ARTICLE
William Choong

William Choong

Dr William Choong is Senior Fellow at ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore. He was previously Shangri-La Dialogue Senior Fellow for Asia-Pacific Security at the IISS until January 2020, where he helped to run the annual IISS Shangri-La Dialogue and contributed to research on regional security issues such as the South China Sea territorial disputes and Japan’s evolution into a "normal" power.