Articles of Distraction

[Angrboda]

While Southeast Asian countries do not want to be trapped in a great-power clash between the United States and China, “they still want to feel the United States is a healthy counterweight to the P.R.C.,” said Mira Rapp-Hooper, who served on the National Security Council during the Biden administration and is now a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution. She was using the initials for the formal name for China, the People’s Republic of China.

“So the perception that the United States is drifting as an alternative has also left a real impression on many of these partners,” she added.

While Mr. Trump has talked about China as an economic rival, he also embraced the superpower after it successfully retaliated during his tariff war last year.

During a summit in Beijing in May, Mr. Trump expressed admiration for President Xi Jinping of China, and he is preparing to host Mr. Xi at a state visit in Washington in late September.

Mr. Trump’s move to build what he calls a “G2” — Group of Two — relationship with China has upended a growing bipartisan push in Washington in the last decade to confront China as a hostile rival.

As the Trump-Xi bonhomie grows, some Asian countries are feeling left out, yet are also opting to stay on China’s friendly side.

That is especially true when China remains the largest trading partner for many of the countries, and the United States is not working on presenting economic alternatives.

“We’re in a very difficult position because you know we want to have that maximal relationship with both sides,” said Richard Heydarian, a political scientist from the Philippines. “And then for countries like the Philippines, it’s even more impossible because the U.S. is a military ally. We need the U.S. when it comes to the China threat, but the U.S. is not giving us much love on anything beyond the military aspect.”

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