The View | The US-led plan to fight China’s ascendancy in Asia takes shape – but can Washington fund it?

When Donald Trump withdrew the US from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) in 2017 he appeared to open the door to Chinese domination of the Asia-Pacific. Now, his administration seems intent on redressing this strategic blunder by resorting to a kind of economic warfare against China while courting other Asian nations.

Washington's latest moves, spearheaded by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, appear to be aimed at a potential Chinese vulnerability – its reliance on trade surpluses and strong foreign exchange reserves to help finance Beijing's overseas power projection.

Trump tariffs, directed at China in particular, threaten to reduce not only China's export earnings but also its ability to generate the foreign exchange reserves which are a major component in financing President Xi Jinping's Belt and Road Initiative. This could undermine China's growing geopolitical and economic outreach in Asia.

Pompeo and other senior US administration officials have meanwhile launched a kind of public relations blitzkrieg (from Washington and Manila) in what they term the “Indo-Pacific” region, with the apparent intention of proving that the US is in the process of making a big comeback following Trump's withdrawal from the TPP and, some feared, from Asia.