Unlike his predecessor, US President Joe Biden has demonstrated that he recognises the importance of showing up, “being there” and fostering economic engagement. Photo: Reuters
Opinion
Richard Borsuk
Richard Borsuk
Why the US must look beyond its rivalry with China and engage Southeast Asia on its own merits
Washington is onto a ‘non-starter’ if it tries to turn Asean into an anti-China grouping, seasoned ex-US diplomat Scot Marciel writes in his new book
America needs to be a ‘consistent, reliable and good partner’, he argues – and engage Southeast Asia as the growing, pivotal region that it is
In November 2011, US president Barack Obama announced that United States foreign policy would make a “pivot” to Asia. But then in January 2017, a key part of that pivot – greater economic interaction – was reversed, as just-inaugurated president Donald Trump launched his “America First” agenda by yanking the US out of what he labelled the “job-killing” Trans-Pacific Partnership.
Damage from the abandonment of the TPP was hefty. The prospects for the US to seriously boost trade with Asia were dented, trust in the US took a hit and the way was left open for non-TPP member China to expand its already-substantial trade and economic links with the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
Trump did not much care about Asean, even though the member states have more than 675 million people and together form a major part of the global economy. As US president he generally disdained multilateral groups and skipped most Asean summits and other big Asian regional meetings, which the leaders of China, Japan and South Korea never missed. He also left some key ambassadorships open for years.
Asean leaders at the 42nd Asean Summit in Labuan Bajo, Indonesia on May 11. Trump did not much care about Asean, even though its member states have more than 675 million people and together form the fifth-largest economy in the world. Photo: via AP
The no-shows definitely upset Asean leaders, as personal relationships can really matter in Southeast Asia, where “being there” is important. In a 1979 movie satirical film with that title, Peter Sellers plays a simple gardener whose comments on plants and growing somehow lead to him being considered a good candidate for the US presidency.
President Joe Biden’s administration recognises the importance of being there. And it is trying to grow economic engagement through the 14-member Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity; but because it does not give widened market access, the grouping – including seven of Asean’s 10 members – is unlikely to generate much enthusiasm.
A big problem is that protectionist and anti-China sentiments are much stronger and deeper in the US than when Obama launched his pivot. Biden will not push trade liberalisation measures, and even if he could, they might be wiped out in 2024, should the US election be won by Trump.
Deteriorating relations between the US and China have generated more attention than usual in Southeast Asia, where each country has its own view of Beijing and Washington. In recent years, there has been a crop of good books focusing on China’s sometimes-fraught relations with Southeast Asia, and now there is one specifically on US ties with the region.
It is titled Imperfect Partners – The United States and Southeast Asia, by highly experienced diplomat Scot Marciel who is now retired from the US State Department. He has a clear view of what Washington should and should not do; a primary thing not to do is to try the “non-starter” of turning Asean into an anti-China group. Instead, the US needs to engage the region as growing and pivotal on its own merits, rather than as important turf for big-power competition with China.
The US approach “cannot be simply a corollary of its China strategy”, Marciel asserts, adding that Washington should not think that Southeast Asia’s resistance against China, like over territorial claims in the South China Sea, means it feels the same as the US does about Beijing as a “largely malign influence”.
Over 35 years, Scot Marciel held senior Asia posts in Washington and was ambassador to Asean, to Indonesia and to Myanmar. Photo: AP
China, he argues, is going to have significant influence in Southeast Asia, no matter what Washington does. China, for obvious reasons, will keep dominating talk in the US about Asia, as Southeast Asia is a “sideshow”. The Stanford University think tank where Marciel is currently attached has 12 analysts working on China, only two on Southeast Asia.
The former diplomat says the US needs to keep showing up and boost relations in Southeast Asia. In an area “long sceptical of US staying power in the region, showing up consistently at the highest levels is essential”, he writes, adding that Washington needs to be a “consistent, reliable and good partner”.
Marciel is extremely qualified to write about the US and Southeast Asia. Over 35 years, he held senior Asia posts in Washington, and was ambassador to Asean, to Indonesia and to Myanmar – before the calamitous February 2021 coup.
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His book is part-memoir and part-primer, with a background that would be helpful to potential investors or people new to Southeast Asia. The meaty text is imperfect in a few places. The chapter on Vietnam mentions the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin incident without any context, making it tough for younger readers on understanding what it was. There are a couple of slightly wrong dates in the Indonesia chapter, and the full name of Apec – the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum – is incorrectly given as Asia-Pacific Economic Coordination.
However, there is a lot of very solid material. Among the strongest chapters are two on Myanmar, which shed a lot of light on what was going on in the long-closed country before the coup. Marciel spent substantial time with Aung San Suu Kyi, and he writes about her asking him and the US government not to use the word “Rohingya”.
Some personal experiences of a diplomatic life help keep the text highly readable. Marciel relates how, in 1993, he was sent to Vietnam – on which the US still had a trade embargo – to be a “presence” in Hanoi, where Washington then did not have anyone resident. For the assignment, he carried in nearly US$50,000 in cash to pay for his hotel and other expenses. The officer in the US embassy in Bangkok who handed over the cash bundle “warned me that I would be personally responsible for it if I were robbed or lost the money”.
Marciel writes well, and has a sense of humour, which not every foreign-service officer does. On the theme of showing up, he writes that attending Asean meetings “is like going to your spouse’s family reunion. It might not be the most memorable thing you ever do, but joining the event will bring rewards, and not showing up definitely will cost you”.
Richard Borsuk has worked as a reporter and news editor in Southeast Asia for more than 40 years, including 11 years in Jakarta (1987-1998) as The Wall Street Journal’s Indonesia correspondent. He co-authored a book on Indonesian history, “Liem Sioe Liong’s Salim Group: The Business Pillar of Suharto’s Indonesia”, published in 2014. Borsuk currently is an adjunct senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
