THE United States and Malaysia are standing poles apart when it comes to dealing with China, as revealed in the recent Shangri-la Dialogue in Singapore.
When US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth took to the podium, he promptly portrayed China as a very dangerous enemy preparing to “use military force to alter the balance of power in the Indo-Pacific (region).”
“The threat from China is real,” he told participants from 47 countries gathered at the annual security forum to debate some of the pressing security challenges in these increasingly turbulent times.
Presumably, he is raising the red flag over a potential conflict with China should the communist behemoth invade tiny Taiwan that could ignite a wider regional or even a global conflagration.
The Indo-Pacific region covers the whole of Asean including Australia, Fiji, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand.
But Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, who also attended the forum, had a different take that is not exactly in line with the American political playbook.
Essentially, he believes in promoting active non-alignment in foreign policy where all countries can pitch in to help “shape a meaningful global order”.
In other words, Malaysia, or Asean, will not side with anyone in a renewed Cold War. Being the Asean chair for this year, Anwar probably thinks he can steer the Asean ship of state away from the turbulent storms emanating from some hotspots around the world.
But keeping-your-hands-off policy is unlikely to be effective as a diplomatic tool to calm tempers down because big powers will not listen to the likes of Anwar trying to broker a peace deal.
These days the sounds of a world war are getting shriller and it appears the loudest noise is originating from China.
America tells the nations in Southeast Asia and other countries the threat from that huge country is credible and hence, there is an urgent need to spend more on defence to meet the Chinese threat.
Hegseth may be crying wolf but Asean must not dismiss his warning as just an American ploy to deliberately create trouble in order to pull the bloc away from Beijing and into the US orbit.
Is the US pulling a fast one on the China threat? It is highly improbable that Washington wants to play a game of deception when the world knows that China is building up its military arsenal in a possible confrontation with the US over the contentious issue of Taiwan and territorial disputes in the South China Sea.
When Hegseth removed the sugar from the coat to expose the unpalatable fact about this looming threat, he must have said it based on solid information about China’s rapid military build-up.
Where did he obtain such irrefutable proof of this disturbing development? It must have come from US satellite images which clearly showed China’s massive expansion in the South China Sea’s disputed Spratly Islands archipelago.
Malaysia does not possess such technologically advanced “spies in the skies” that can locate with pin-point accuracy any military activity in any country. Hence, it will be in the dark about what is secretly going on behind the Great Wall of China.
But the US has sounded the alarm and Asean must sit up and prepare for a possible aggressive encounter with this giant northern neighbour.
It would do well to remember that before Ukraine was invaded, the US, through satellite images, had warned its President Volodymyr Zelensky that Russia was massing troops on the country’s borders for an invasion.
But Zelensky dismissed the information as an attempt by the West to create unnecessary panic and he paid a heavy price for ignoring the dire warning.
Now, a similar pattern is unfolding with, this time, China as the belligerent. There is no escaping from the fact that this superpower is flexing its military might as seen through the eyes of the spies in the skies.
Although it is important to maintain vibrant ties with China, it is also equally crucial not to overlook the danger the nuclear-armed country poses to the rest of the world.
In the rush to yet another world war, no country can stay neutral or stay safe. All will be sucked into the maelstrom.
The weaker ones will have to seek protection from one of the superpowers or band together to help themselves. The danger is real and we ignore it to our own peril. ‒ June 12, 2025
Phlip Rodrigues is a retired journalist.
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia.
Main image: Reuters
