United States Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman's nine-day trip of back-to-back visits to the Republic of Korea, the Philippines, Vietnam and Laos starting on Sunday is a further bid by the Joe Biden administration to drive wedges between those countries and China.
Rather than reflecting the US' "continued commitment to the Indo-Pacific", Sherman's visits－which come after last month's US-Association of Southeast Asian Nations Special Summit, US President Joe Biden's visit to the ROK and Japan, the Quad Leaders' Summit in Tokyo, and the launch of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity－reflect the US' continued commitment to the containment policy outlined by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in his May 24 speech outlining the administration's China policy.
It is not hard to see that all of the four countries on Sherman's itinerary are on better terms with China compared with those close to the US, such as Japan and Australia.
Sherman's tour clearly indicates that the Biden administration has chosen to turn a deaf ear to the appeal Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi made shortly after Blinken's speech that Sino-US ties cannot be allowed to continually worsen.
Sherman's visits also serve to show that it is Washington's willful deviation from the trends of the times that has soured ties between the two countries.
Even though it repeatedly claims it is not waging a new Cold War, the "values" diplomacy of the Biden administration belies that claim.
For instance, the "Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act", which Biden signed into law in December, is set to take effect on June 21. Under this law, the US will treat any goods that are made in China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, either wholly or in part, as the product of forced labor unless "clear and convincing evidence" is provided that they are not. This is the latest attempt of the US to dictate to others the dos and don'ts on China.
As such, Asia-Pacific countries should be wary of Washington's beguiling exhortations as its true intention is to use them in its schemes to contain China, which will harm their national interests and ruin regional stability and development.
Sherman, who visited China last year and who returned to Washington with a to-do list given her by Beijing detailing what the US needed to do to mend its ties with China, is fully aware of the points of friction in Sino-US relations. She also knows that what she is assigned to peddle on her four-nation trip will not be popular with her hosts, who are wary of throwing themselves wholeheartedly into the arms of the US.
Having been successful in following a particular course based on a shared appreciation of the common good, it will be hard to convince them that it is to their advantage to try another based on the vague promises and nebulous notions of shared values. Especially when those are proffered by Washington, which has a long record of disturbing the peace.