The United States Is Deeply Invested in the South China Sea

This article is adapted from On Dangerous Ground: America’s Century in the South China Sea by Gregory B. Poling (Oxford University Press, 336 pp., $39.95, July 2022).

U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin flew to Singapore in June to address the first in-person Shangri-La Dialogue since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was officially the headliner, but the contrasting speeches by Austin and Chinese Defense Minister Wei Fenghe drew the most attention.

Wei delivered a tin-eared address threatening Taiwan, warning the United States to stay out of the way, and dismissing the agency of third countries. Austin, by contrast, focused on alliances, partnerships, and international rules as vital. He hailed the United States’ “unparalleled network of alliances and partnerships” as a “profound source of stability” in the Indo-Pacific. And he declared the U.S. commitment to a region “in which all countries—large and small—are free to thrive and to lawfully pursue their interests, free from coercion and intimidation.”