The November APEC summit in China concluded with “historic” news – on agreements about climate change, trade, visas, and other issues. But the triumphal headlines do not mask the cold reality: Beijing is moving steadily to supplant U.S. power in the region, and replace the American-led international system with one of its own. Nowhere is this effort more obvious than in the largely underappreciated geopolitical contest in South Asia, where China has aggressively extended its sphere of influence. Washington should not accept China’s challenge as a fait accompli but should rather seek to buttress the prevailing international order by strengthening U.S. ties with states large and small, protecting their sovereign rights from Chinese hegemony and, essentially, giving the nations of South Asia something to choose over a “Chinese order.”[Source]
