Wide Asia support for US despite China rise: survey

Policymakers in most Asian countries support a robust US role in the region even though many expect China to become the most dominant power, a survey has said.
An 11-nation survey of experts, who are not in government but are seen as influential, found strong backing in almost every country except China for President Barack Obama's stated policy of "pivoting" US resources toward Asia.
The study by the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies found that elites largely expected China's clout to keep growing. But asked what would be best for their countries, wide majorities in the United States as well as its regional partners Australia, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan chose continued US leadership, even if Washington's power declines in relative terms.

Elites in Southeast Asia and India preferred international cooperation, with marginal numbers even in China itself saying that Beijing's supremacy would be in their countries' best interest.
Japan, whose relationship with China has been deteriorating, was the most enthusiastic about a dominant US position. Only two percent of Japanese experts said that China played a positive role in regional security and 83 percent expected Japan's most important economic relationship in a decade to be with the United States, even though China is already Japan's largest trading partner.
On the other end of the spectrum, Southeast Asian nations preferred a "quiet, persistent presence" by the United States, said Bonnie Glaser, a China expert at the center.

Southeast Asians appreciate the US commitment to freedom of navigation amid tensions with Beijing in the South China Sea, but "they really don't want to see confrontation and friction between the United States and China," Glaser said at the release of the survey.

One surprise in the survey was in China itself, where 71 per cent of experts predicted that the United States would be the dominant power in East Asia in 2024 -- more than said so in any other country, including even the United States.
The survey was conducted in March and April, before the Thai military's latest coup that has triggered strong US criticism.

India was the only Asian nation other than Japan where more expected the United States rather than China to be its top economic partner. Only nine percent of experts in India, which has a long-running border dispute with China, said that Beijing had a positive impact on regional security.