US 'pivot' must go beyond defense
By Curtis S Chin
BANGKOK - From US marines in the north Australian city of Darwin to the repositioning of American naval forces across the Asia-Pacific region, the so-called US "pivot" continues apace amid growing attention to China's own engagement with the region.
US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel's recent visit to Singapore for his first Shangri-La Dialogue as head of the Pentagon was likely welcomed by many Asian governments and officials worried about China's increasingly assertive posturing and the US's commitment to the region amid ongoing budget battles in Washington.
Building on last year's visit by his predecessor, then-secretary of
defense Leon Panetta, Hagel reaffirmed the US's "pivot" to the Asia-Pacific, though "rebalance" is now the preferred parlance for the policy among US officials. In that direction, the Pentagon continues to shift military troops, ships and aircraft to the region.
Beyond US marines deploying to Darwin, US naval visits to Singapore and other Pacific ports are on the rise. Joint military exercises with regional allies, meanwhile, continue apace. Critically, Hagel also noted the importance of dialogue and engagement between the US and China, so as to avoid "miscalculations and misunderstandings and misinterpretations".
The message was delivered prior to Chinese leader Xi Jinping's high profile official visit with US President Barack Obama in California. Yet, while Australia, Japan and Southeast Asian nations in particular may quietly welcome strengthened US defense and diplomatic engagement, there are concurrent hopes that the US will prioritize greater business, cultural and educational engagement as part of its "pivot". Such ventures would add substance to the official rhetoric that an economic "pivot" is also underway.
From a business and trade perspective, the US would benefit from an explicit recommitment to free trade and to free-trade agreements (FTAs) with regional partners. During tough economic times, the default position of governments is often inward-looking, unwisely seeking to shield domestic businesses from international competition.
Negotiations are continuing toward a new regional FTA - the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) - between the US and several Pacific Rim nations. But the expansion of the pool of potential participants will cause inevitable delays in its actual implementation. New, more-focused initiatives are also warranted in Asia, especially as Washington now talks of a new US-Europe trade agreement.
This would also mean government leaders who do not talk down US businesses for succeeding overseas, or unintentionally make it more difficult for US businesspeople, particularly small-scale businesses, to profit abroad. A case in point is the so-called Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) - legislation that has in some cases made it difficult for US expatriate workers to obtain financial services due to onerous reporting requirements required of non-US financial institutions who serve American clients.
At the same time, US businesses are facing growing competition from companies from Brazil, Russia, India and China, known collectively as the BRIC economies. They also face a lower-cased "bric" - bureaucracy, regulation, interventionism and corruption - that poses an even larger challenge. Inefficient or ineffective bureaucracies, regulations that are unequally applied or enforced, interventionism by government at the expense of market forces, and crony capitalism, if not outright corruption, all persist in Asia.
Yet, American companies still succeed despite the odds. A more robust policy "pivot" would improve the odds currently stacked against American businesses operating in Asia. Instead of making it even more difficult for them to succeed, Americans and their elected leaders should take pride in the success of US businesses in Asia - regardless of where the jobs are based or goods and products made.
In Southeast Asia, Ford Motor Co is investing several hundred million US dollars in a auto-manufacturing plant for vehicles to be sold throughout the region. The success of a company such as Ford in Asia should not be viewed as bad news for the US, and senior US diplomats, including a future US secretary of commerce, should recognize that fact.
From an educational perspective, while the US remains the overwhelming favorite destination for students studying outside of their home country, the US's share of that growing market is declining as other nations take efforts to make it easier for qualified foreign students to study in their colleges and universities.
A US educational "pivot" should follow suit, recognizing the critical value - both economically and diplomatically - of young people from Asia traveling to and studying in the US. Specific policy changes could take lessons from Australia, which has introduced efforts to better coordinate the university application and visa application processes and as a result seen foreign enrollments rise.
China's efforts to promote Chinese culture, studies and language abroad through government-funded institutes and other programs has been noteworthy in recent years. While US pop culture and the English language are increasingly ubiquitous in Asia, a case can be made for greater support for more focused "cultural diplomacy" by the US. This could include policy changes and the encouragement of public-private efforts and partnerships that would increase exchange programs and the visits of US cultural organizations, particularly smaller institutions, to the Asia-Pacific region.
With the conclusion of this year's Shangri-La Dialogue, Secretary of Defense Hagel traveled on to Europe for a meeting of defense ministers there. Happenings in Asia - particularly with regard to rising military tensions this past year in the South China Sea - was likely a topic of private conversation among that audience.
But whether in Washington, Singapore or Sydney, it is important that US engagement in the Asia-Pacific region be more than - and be seen as much more than - about defense. It is time to rebalance the "rebalance" and for the US to follow up on defense and diplomatic visits with substantive policy efforts and investments that also encourage greater US business, educational and cultural ventures in the region.
Curtis S Chin is a senior fellow and executive-in-residence at the Asian Institute of Technology and a managing director with advisory firm RiverPeak Group, LLC. He served as US Ambassador to the Asian Development Bank (2007-2010) under presidents George W Bush and Barack Obama.
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