A U.S.-India Alliance to Check China’s Rise

A U.S.-India Alliance to Check China’s Rise

By Max Boot
June 4, 2015
Commentary Magazine


Sometimes it seems as if there is no bipartisan common ground in American foreign policy. But improving relations with India is one notable area where there is no difference between Republicans and Democrats, and for good reason. This was a relationship that George W. Bush nurtured and now the Obama administration is carrying it forward, most recently with this week’s trip by Defense Secretary Ash Carter to India.

The potential for the U.S.-India alliance, if that is what develops, is almost limitless. It can easily become the most important strategic shift of the 21st century. By embracing India, the US contains China and aligns itself with a fast-growing democracy — the world’s largest – that is just as threatened as we are, if not more so, by the threat of Islamist terrorism. We are a long way from such an alliance, but the new Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, is far more open to improving ties with the US than were most of his predecessors who were steeped in a socialist “non-aligned” worldview and effectively tilted toward the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Modi wants India to become a global power and the US can and should help support that goal, while helping American defense contractors to score some substantial sales.

The more that the U.S. can do to strengthen ties with India, the better. The same should be said of Ash Carter’s other destination on this swing through Asia: Vietnam. This is another state that, like India, is worried about the growth of Chinese power and seeks better relations with the U.S. as a hedge. If the U.S. can knit together an alliance to contain China that includes not only traditional allies such as Japan and South Korea and Australia, but also states such as India and Vietnam, we will have an invaluable mechanism to limit China’s dangerous expansionism. And if you to see how dangerous that Chinese tendency can be, look no further than the South China Sea where Beijing is building the Great Sandwall of China; a series of newly dug islands that will enable China to claim the entire area as its de facto sovereign territory.

To play our part in an anti-China alliance, we will need to pass the Trans-Pacific Partnership to strengthen trade ties while also raising defense spending to make the Pacific Pivot a reality rather than just a talking point (without, however, abandoning the Middle East or Europe). In the Far East, as elsewhere, people want to align with a “strong horse.” If China’s neighbors don’t think the US is strong enough to help them contain China, they will grudgingly and unwillingly find themselves drifting into China’s orbit as tributary states, the role they played in the days of the Chinese Empire. But if the U.S. will help China’s neighbors, together there is the potential to check Beijing’s aggression and ensure that China’s rise is truly “peaceful.”

Article Link to Commentary Magazine:

https://www.commentarymagazine.com/2015/06/04/u-s-india-alliance-rising-china/

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