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Letters | Israel-Gaza crisis will not shake US’ laser focus on China
- Readers discuss the US-China power rivalry, and the shortcomings of the Taiwanese media
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While the world’s attention has been fixed on the Israel-Hamas crisis in the Middle East, the ingrained Sino-US rivalry and developments in the Indo-Pacific, including in Taiwan and the South China Sea, are still on the radar.
Taiwan will elect a new president in January, and Democratic Progressive Party candidate William Lai Ching-te has emerged as the frontrunner in the race. On the mainland, there has been a shake-up of senior officials in the past few months.
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Beijing remains determined to maintain its dominance in the South China Sea, as evidenced by the recent hard-power intimidation of Philippine vessels and the dangerous manoeuvre with a US B-52 bomber plane.
China cutting off military-to-military communication with the United States gives Washington the moral upper hand should miscalculations occur.
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The US has made intensive overtures to China in most recent months, with a series of visits by high-ranking officials, from Secretary of State Antony Blinken to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo. Most recently, California Governor Gavin Newsom met President Xi Jinping. In the summer, business leaders such as Microsoft founder Bill Gates had visited China.
All this will not change the eventual power equation, however. As part of its latest National Defence Strategy, the US has a laser focus on China, which the Pentagon describes as a “pacing challenge”.
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