China rewards and bullies countries to push its Indo-Pacific agenda, top US diplomat says

Inducements and intimidation help Beijing pursue its repressive vision for the region, East Asia and Pacific chief David Stilwell tells Senate committee

But there is room for engagement with China, and US should not ‘demonise everything’ about it, Stilwell says

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The Chinese navy conducts a patrol in the disputed Spratly Islands, as part of what has been termed militarisation in the South China Sea. Photo: Reuters

Published: 6:15pm, 19 Sep 2019Updated: 10:52pm, 19 Sep 2019

The top US diplomat for East Asia has accused China of influencing and intimidating countries in the Indo-Pacific to advance its agenda in the region, amid a heightened trade and strategic rivalry between Beijing and Washington.

David Stilwell, the United States’ Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, testified at length on Wednesday before the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee about Beijing’s challenge to a “free and open order” in the Indo-Pacific region.

He cited Chinese militarisation in the South China Sea, unsustainable lending under Beijing’s transcontinental infrastructure strategy the Belt and Road Initiative, and the squeezing of Taiwan’s international space.

“We are especially concerned by Beijing’s use of market-distorting economic inducements and penalties, influence operations, and intimidation to persuade other states to heed its political and security agenda,” Stilwell said.

“Beijing’s pursuit of a repressive alternative vision for the Indo-Pacific seeks to reorder the region in its favour and has put China in a position of strategic competition with all who seek to preserve a free and open order of sovereign, diverse nations.”