Rise of China threatens US-backed global order: Tellis

China's rise threatens the US-backed global order and the Obama Administration should start strengthening India-type relationship with Beijing's other neighbours to counter it, an American expert has said.
The US needs a novel strategy to balance China without containing it, Ashley Tellis of Carnegie Endowment for International Peace wrote in a report in which he said China is poised to the become a major strategic rival to America.
"As China rises, American power will diminish in relative terms, threatening the foundations of the US-backed global order that has engendered unprecedented prosperity worldwide," Tellis said.
If the consequential states abutting China - such as Japan, India, Vietnam, Singapore, Indonesia and Australia - could be aided by American power to realise their strategic potential and increase their mutual cooperation, the net effect would be the creation of objective constraints that limit the misuse of Chinese power in Asia, he wrote.

Tellis said since 2001, the US has made a special effort to transform its ties with India, the other rising Asian giant whose large continental size, great economic and demographic potential, significant military capabilities, and sturdy commitment to democracy-not to mention its own ongoing rivalry with China-make it a particularly attractive partner for Washington.
While this renovation was epochal and long overdue, it cannot subsist in splendid isolation, he argued.

"Rather, the same kind of foresight and strategic investment that drove the rapprochement with India must be extended toward bolstering the other Asian states on the Chinese periphery, particularly Japan, Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam, and the other critical Southeast Asian states as well as Australia," he asserted.

The experience in transforming the Indo-US relationship, which has now spanned both Republican and Democratic administrations, suggests that challenges are never in short supply in either Washington or the partner capital.
Tellis said the regional states, especially the larger partners such as India, Japan, and Australia, should be aided and encouraged to take on deeper security responsibilities in the Indo-Pacific, bilaterally whenever possible and independently whenever necessary, so that they are capable of protecting their own interests as well as those of their neighbors in case they face a crisis.
In fact, given US strategic objectives in Asia and the necessity of strengthening the power of states located along China's periphery, Washington should aim to include India in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) as well.

Admitting New Delhi into the negotiations related to this free-trade agreement would be beneficial for the trans-Pacific states because of the large size of India's market and the gains to be accrued from its growth strategy, which centers on expanding not exports but domestic consumption.