• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary navigation
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Humphrey Hawksley

Author, commentator and broadcaster

  • Home
  • About
  • Journalism
  • Books
  • Events
  • Contact & Photos
  • Rake Ozenna Thrillers
  • Future History
  • International Thrillers
  • Non-Fiction
  • All Books

New narrative in the Indo-Pacific

7th January 2020 1 Comment

French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle
Photo source: AsianAffairs.in

Europe’s navies are returning to Asia in a move that could either inflame or help keep tensions under control. Britain and France have deployed warships to the contested South China Sea and announced that more are on their way.

For the West it is a natural culmination of Donald Trump’s trade war, the European Union redefinition of China as a systemic rival and the necessary reaction to Beijing’s open violation of the rules-based order by building military bases in international waters.

But for Beijing this scenario conjures up the 19th century spectre of foreign gunboats invading its shores that led to its Century of Humiliation. […]

New narrative in the Indo-Pacific

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Scot Morgan says

    7th January 2020 at 6:37 pm

    Thanks for bringing this article to my attention. Fascinating read.

    This point is a good summation of how the game is being redefined as new pieces come to the board: “The projection of British and French military power into this theatre changes the narrative that Beijing had hoped to write, namely that the South China Sea was a dispute of Asian values pitted against Western ones, whereby China represented modern, forward-looking Asia against the outdated, fading and flawed West.”

    and this: “Europe’s return signals the failure of Asia to create its own internal defence structures. More decades might have allowed time for the Indo-Pacific’s institutions to strengthen and mature, but China’s rapid advancement has brought an urgency that Western powers insist needs addressing.”

    I remember studying the Opium Wars in university, as well as working through futurist projections on how the region’s power balance might work out. With so many variables injected into the mix, precarious uncertainty might be the best possible scenario for some time.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

For enquiries and further information

Photo by Vernon Layton

To contact Humphrey:
[email protected]

Before sending your email address please read our GDPR Compliance Statement and Privacy Notice to reassure yourself that we are looking after your data responsibly.

More reports

Asia could give UK the post-Brexit win it needs

The United Kingdom's full separation from the European Union, due to begin on Jan. 1, is bound to be … [Read More...]

United States of Asia

Dust had barely settled on the American presidential election when 16Asian leaders signed a trade … [Read More...]

The Quad – Is this the alliance to check Chinese expansion?

David Foster hosted Humphrey on a TRT Roundtable discussion together with Jagannath Panda (Manohar … [Read More...]

Impact Journalism – Holding government and business to account

TVE Difficult Dialogues: Hidden Stories, Impact Journalism - talking about reporting human rights … [Read More...]

Foreign powers back in Asia

The array of nations lined up behind the US sends an unequivocal message that China’s time has not … [Read More...]

Footer

Search site

Connect with Humphrey

  • E-mail
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter

Join Humphrey’s mailing list

Subscribe

Email Humphrey

For general enquiries and bookings for events:

[email protected] and [email protected]

Copyright © 2008 - 2021 Humphrey Hawksley · All rights reserved · Site Terms, Cookies and Privacy · GDPR Compliance Statement · Website by LiT Web Studio