February 25

Roundtable Featuring JIIA Strategic Annual Report 2020

The discussions at the Roundtable Featuring Strategic Annual Report 2020 centered around the intensification of US-China confrontation and strategic competition and their consequences for the Indo-Pacific region. Regarding the main cause of the US-China confrontation, the views of the panelists were divided, with one panelist attributing the origin to the US attempt to prevent China’s natural course of development, while the other speakers saw China’s economic and military expansion coupled with its assertive policy as its main cause.

Based on the assumption that the Biden administration would continue a hardline policy towards China, it was foreseen that US-China relations would remain tense and might deteriorate further. Several panelists mentioned the possibility of cooperation on global issues such as climate change but predicted that its positive impact on overall US-China relations would be limited. Another panelist discussed the repercussions of US-China competition on the global market including rulemaking.

Several views were expressed regarding the nature of US-China relations: one argued they should be examined from both structure and process; another said the relations should be categorized as “confrontation” rather than “competition”, and that such confrontation would intensify in the next two decades when the Chinese economy may catch up and surpass that of the US; attention was also drawn to the ideological competition aspect. European panelists pointed out the increasing interest of European countries in the Indo-Pacific region and emphasized the importance of strengthening cooperation among democratic states, including those of Europe.

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