Signs with the American flag and Chinese flag will be seen on September 19, 2018 outside a store selling foreign goods in Qingdao in eastern Shandong province in China.
AFP | Getty Images
SINGAPORE – Southeast Asia’s support for the US appears to have increased after Joe Biden won the presidential election, according to an annual survey by Singapore think tank ISEAS Yusof-Ishak Institute.
The Southeast Asian State poll released last week found that 61.5% of respondents would prefer to join the U.S. over China if the region were forced to choose. This is an increase of 53.6% that the US preferred over China in the same survey a year ago.
“The region’s support for Washington may have increased due to the prospects of the new Biden administration,” the survey report said.
The answers to the latest poll were collected from November 18 last year to January 10 this year – after Biden was expected to defeat Donald Trump in the election, but before he was inaugurated as president.
The survey involved more than 1,000 respondents from all ten member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN. The respondents include government officials, businessmen, as well as analysts from academia, think tanks and research institutions.
Compared to data at the country level, a majority of respondents from seven Southeast Asian countries preferred the US over China in the latest survey. This is an increase of three in the previous issue, with Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand sidelined.
Nevertheless, the majority of respondents choose China – above the US, ASEAN and others – as the most influential force in Southeast Asia.
About 76.3% of respondents choose China as the most influential economic power, while 49.1% prefer China as the most influential political and strategic power.
Meaning of Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia has been caught in the middle of the US-China competition for the past few years.
The region is home to more than 650 million people and some of the worlds fastest growing economies. Its proximity to the South China Sea – a major trade route where trillions of dollars of world trade pass – contributes to its strategic importance.
The USA has been an important presence in the region for many years through both security and economic commitments. But during Trump’s term, the US withdrew from the Trans-Pacific Partnership – a mega-trade treaty that included several Southeast Asian countries – and top US government officials were particularly absent from some key regional summits.
The apparent lack of US interest over the past few years has coincided with China’s more aggressive pressure in the region through programs, including infrastructure investments under the Belt and Road Initiative.
But the latest ISEAS survey found that a majority of respondents – about 68.6% – were optimistic that the US under Biden would increase its involvement in Southeast Asia. This showed compared to a year ago when 77% believed that US involvement would decline.
The region’s confidence in the US also rose in the latest survey from 30.3% a year ago to 48.3%.
“Only time will tell whether the region’s renewed confidence in the US has been misplaced or not,” the report said.
Early signs showed that Biden’s government will focus more on the region in the coming years.
The president strengthened his foreign policy team with experts on Asia, while US Secretary of State Antony Blinken – in a call with his Philippine counterpart – promised to “stand together” with Southeast Asian countries against Chinese pressure in the South China Sea.