Denny Roy (Denny_Roy808): Biden is talking about 'shared values' to counter China. That isn't helping the U.S. in Asia
uring his visit to Asia, which concludes May 24, President Joe Biden has been reiterating that his foreign policy is centered on uniting “partners who share our values” in order to oppose governments “who do not share our values.” To meet the challenges posed by a powerful and ambitious China, however, relying on common political values to build a coalition may be a costly blunder. This approach limits the number of potential U.S. security partners when Washington needs as many as it can get.
Washington already knows how to cooperate with states that do not behave according to liberal principles. To defeat Germany and Japan in World War II, the U.S. sided with Stalin’s Soviet Union, imperialist powers Britain and France, and a brutally authoritarian government led by Chiang Kai-shek in the Republic of China. During the Cold War, Washington supported “friendly dictators” against Soviet-backed dictators. The U.S.
The Philippines is an especially instructive example. A U.S. treaty ally, the country is potentially a bulwark against Chinese attempts to establish quasi-ownership over the South China Sea. But U.S. relations with Rodrigo Duterte, elected president in 2016, soured after he objected to Washington’s criticism of his government’s large-scale extrajudicial killings of alleged drug traffickers.