As West exploits India-China cracks, Asia must rise above the divisive ideology

From G20 to Brics, the more the West seeks to weaken the India-China axis crucial to regional cooperation, the more Asia’s statesmen must stand together

Anthony Rowley

Published: 4:00pm, 9 Sep 2023

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Summit season has peaked in Asia with G20 leaders meeting in India and Asean statesmen in Indonesia this past week, right on the heels of the Brics summit in South Africa last month.

In some ways, this marks a coming of age for Asian nations, with US President Joe Biden, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron all keen to push the Western agenda at the G20 meeting. The world, it seems, is beating a path to Asia’s door.

Healthy though this changing balance of power will be in the long run, with its promise of greater North-South political and economic equilibrium, there will be turbulent times during the transition and Western powers are likely to try to exploit them in an attempt to restore the status quo ante.

This is becoming evident as commentators, including those from the West, play up the differences between China and India, for instance, ascribing President Xi Jinping’s absence from the G20 summit in New Delhi to the territorial disputes between the two countries and calling it a snub.

Sino-Indian differences certainly exist and they go deeper than border issues. They reflect divergent cultural values and historical experiences. But they are being purposely exacerbated by inducing India to join so-called Indo-Pacific initiatives created to counter Asia-Pacific cooperation.

These include, among others, the Biden administration-initiated Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) which includes the US, Australia and Japan and others, as well as the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (known as the Quad), a strategic security forum for Australia, India, Japan and the US.

India has so far managed to straddle a difficult Indo-Pacific and Asia-Pacific divide. But the India-China axis is the vulnerable link that holds together not only the emerging and advanced powers of the G20, but also serves as an anchor for the integrity of the Brics bloc.

Whereas pragmatism, especially in economic and financial cooperation, seems to be the defining characteristic of home-grown regional arrangements in Asia (including the China-led Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership), divisive ideology has intruded from outside.

So-called “shared values” (which in reality are shared only in part), a “for us or against us” mentality and the cult of “allies vs enemies” have come to dominate forums where Western and Eastern – or North and South – nations attempt to coexist and cooperate.

This is deplorable given the profound socio-economic challenges facing Asia, not least the existential threat of climate change. There is a massive agenda to tackle and bodies such as the G20 and Brics are obvious forums – but not if they are being undermined by external politicking.

China’s Belt and Road Initiative is emblematic of this kind of well-purposed initiative gone sour. Launched by Xi, this was the sort of global infrastructure initiative needed to support and spread economic growth, through a revival of old trading routes.

It was no more designed to achieve global domination for China than was the Silk Road centuries ago. The Belt and Road is a land and sea mercantile initiative meant to connect China and Central Asia with markets. But it has been sabotaged, for now at least, by Western resentment against rising powers.

It is no surprise that some of these powers – notably the US – wish to turn back the clock. How simple life appeared – at least to those who didn’t look too closely – 30 years ago when the Soviet Union had collapsed, China was re-emerging but not threatening, the European Union was newly born and Asia generally quiescent. Everyone knew who was “in charge” – the United States.

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If the rest of the world needed to be consulted, it was done via the United Nations, G7, International Monetary Fund, World Bank, Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and others, or in Asia via the Association of Southeast Asian Nations or the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) forum. The G20 did not exist, nor did the plethora of organisations formed since in Asia.

It was a caricature of an international order, however, with a dozen or so nations, out of some 200 that make up the global total, purporting to represent the world while dominating those multilateral institutions that did exist. It was an order destined to be broken, then expanded and reformed.

Yet the West (a rather nebulous geopolitical entity even at the best of times) seems to be thrown into a state of near panic every time emerging nations in Asia, Latin America or elsewhere appear to be moving towards power-sharing arrangements.

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But emerging powers are destined to emerge, however many obstacles are placed in their path by those who feel threatened by the process of economic evolution.

A native of Eastern Europe heading a Washington-based institution, IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva noted at the recent Asean summit in Jakarta that Asean economies have been scarred by external shocks. “Economic fragmentation makes it even harder,” she said. “If the world were to break into separate economic blocs, this would have profound implications for dynamic open economies such as Asean.”

It is imperative, she added, “that we work together to combat this threat”. Asia’s pragmatists will say hurrah to this sentiment, and let us hope they prevail over the defensive and aggressive forces threatening to push the world to the verge of conflict.

This calls for statesmanship and there seems to be more of that on display in Asia than in the West nowadays.

Anthony Rowley is a veteran journalist specialising in Asian economic and financial affairs