U.S.-China Rivalry in Southeast Asia: Power Shift or Competitive Coexistence?

Despite their deep interdependence and elements of cooperation, the United States and China the world’s two major powers are increasingly locked in a comprehensive competitive relationship. This rivalry extends to the geostrategic, geoeconomic, geopolitical, military, cultural, scientiªc, technological, innovation, and many other domains. The Donald Trump administration’s National Security Strategy of the United States made this explicit by labeling China (and Russia) as “strategic competitors” and “revisionist powers.” Although now occurring on a global level, the rivalry is most apparent across the vast Asian région stretching from the Indian Ocean to the western Pacific. The U.S. National Security Strategy asserts ºatly, “China seeks to displace the United States in the Indo-Paciªc region, expand the reaches of its state-driven economic model, and reorder the region in its favor.