China's Asia: Triangular Dynamics since the Cold War.

AuthorThu, Huong Le

China's Asia: Triangular Dynamics since the Cold War. By Lowell Dittmer. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield, 2018. Softcover: 289pp.

Lowell Dittmer's book comes at a critical time when regional actors are learning to cope with a rising and assertive China. According to Lowell Dittmer's interesting book, China is seeking to revive the old China Dream of exercising dominance over what it considers to be its "natural region". However, the region has been resisting such attempts, and "China finds its way to its prized Asian leadership role frustrated" (p. 2).

Dittmer suggests that the best way to understand the geopolitical dynamics between China and its Asian neighbours is by mapping them onto a triangular model of relationships with the United States as the third actor. This creates what Dittmer calls a "strategic triangle", in which each participant is presumed to be a sovereign and rational actor. Each actor in a strategic triangle takes into account the third actor in managing its relationship with the second. Each actor is also essential to the game in the sense that its defection from one side to the other would affect the strategic balance. For Dittmer, "the rules of the game are to maximize national interests by having as many positive triangles and as few negative triangles as possible" (p. 11).

With the inclusion of the United States in the strategic triangle, China's asymmetrical power advantages over its Asian neighbours are mitigated, much to Beijing's chagrin. This explains why China seeks to depict the United States as "a country outside of the region" and cast its foreign policy in the region as "interference" or "intervention" (p. 17). China also warns its smaller neighbours to "not take sides" between the two major powers (p. 13).

The book examines six strategic triangles: Russia, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, ASEAN, India (with the inclusion of two smaller embedded triangles involving Pakistan) and Australia.

For Dittmer, the Russia-China-US triangle poses the worst possible configuration for the United States. In recent years, the Sino-Russian partnership has grown stronger, placing the United States in a disadvantageous position. Dittmer describes how President Barack Obama made a strategic choice of engaging China, even "downplaying short-term disagreements over the South China Sea" (p. 99). However, under President Donald Trump, US bilateral relations with China and Russia have deteriorated, while Beijing and Moscow...

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