How Washington Can Credibly Counter China in the Pacific

Filed 1h ago · Via Foreign Policy · The Buffoon Desk

THIS STORY IS SCORED

Dvorak Polka

Kevin MacLeod · incompetech.com · CC BY 4.0

Photo: Jakub Hałun · CC BY 4.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

Foreign Policy analysts argue that a July Chinese submarine-launched ballistic missile test, which splashed down in the South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone, underscores an accelerating contest for influence across Pacific island nations.

The piece traces China's regional ambitions back to a 2022 security pact with the Solomon Islands and argues U.S. strategy has suffered from 'institutional neglect,' urging Washington to move past high-level visits toward sustained, resourced partnerships.

The authors credit both the first Trump and Biden administrations with bipartisan efforts to deepen U.S.-Pacific ties, without detailing how much of that engagement has translated into durable results.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.

✒ FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK

Calling for a 'comprehensive, consistent, and fully resourced' strategy is the foreign-policy equivalent of asking for world peace — nobody disagrees, and nobody has to explain how they'll pay for it. The piece is long on alarm about Beijing's missile tests and short on what Washington has actually delivered since the last round of alarm in 2022. If neglect got us here, more op-eds urging attention are not obviously the fix.

Source: Read the original at Foreign Policy → Scored: Dvorak Polka · Kevin MacLeod · CC BY 4.0

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