Follow Cyprus Immigration and focus on doing business in Cyprus: Cyprus Mail: China does not have much room for error. China is thriving and hopes the world will recognize its status as a major power. Beijing is flexing its military muscles, posing a challenge to the United States' hegemony in the Western Pacific. Washington's response is to adjust its global strategy and launch the so-called "Pivot to Asia." This is not a bad idea in itself. The problem is that the U.S. pivot is more about maintaining its regional hegemony than adjusting to changing realities.
It is not just China that is rising. Think of India to the west, Indonesia to the south. Think of the resurgence of Japan, Vietnam, and South Korea... Regional countries once enjoyed U.S. protection and support to counter the so-called communist threat. Today, these countries still value friendship with the U.S., but they also value their own independence. As China's national strength grows, they do not want to be dragged into a U.S.-China confrontation. The current balance of power is shifting, and these countries hope the U.S. will use its influence in a friendlier manner. If the Pivot to Asia is intended to help our regional partners reach an accommodation with China, it might produce a result beneficial to all parties. Unfortunately, the opposite is true: the U.S. government is posturing and refusing to accept the inevitable shift.
Facts have proven that the U.S. is not very good at effective diplomacy. It interprets China's assertion of maritime rights as an inherent expansionist nature and potential aggression. Washington fails to realize that Beijing views its military modernization and anti-access/area-denial strategy—securing its own waters and strategic maritime corridors in the event of an enemy invasion—as defensive measures, at least in part as a reaction to U.S. policy.
Foreigners often only see that China has become a modernized, developed country, full of confidence in a bright future. But in reality, the Chinese are well aware of their own weaknesses. After all, this is a country with a thousand-year history of foreign invasions, having had to fight for its independence time and again.
Despite significant economic growth, China does not have much room for error. Beijing must solve the problems of feeding, clothing, and housing nearly 1.4 billion people. It must maintain national integrity, while surrounded by 14 neighboring countries, not to mention those across the ocean... Therefore, the Chinese are naturally cautious and dislike military confrontation. If the Chinese have doubts about the U.S. Pivot to Asia, it is only when this strategy fails that they will feel at ease.
For the U.S. to pivot to China, it needs to pivot away from the Middle East. But currently, the U.S. is the only force in the region balancing Iran and must protect Israel, which keeps the U.S. stuck in the Middle East. Moreover, the U.S. itself is politically and fiscally weak, and it is unlikely to have the will or financial resources to support the military operations required to suppress China for effective self-defense.