Anson Au

Opinion | Why the US footprint in Asia looks set to shrink

The blow to globalisation dealt by the coronavirus will be exacerbated by US presidential candidates running on protectionist platforms. The result may be a reduction of American influence in Asia, with China gaining ground

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China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi meets US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on the sidelines of the 52nd Asean Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Bangkok on August 1, 2019. Photo: AFP

Anson Au

Published: 6:30am, 1 Sep 2020Updated: 7:12am, 1 Sep 2020

Two events are shaking up the global order. The first is the coronavirus, which is raging across nations worldwide, leaving in its wake sealed national borders, major disruptions to trade routes and supply chains on life support.

According to the US Census Bureau, the total value of imports to the US from China, Japan and South Korea declined by around 17 per cent for the first half of 2020 compared to that of 2019. In some cases like Singapore, the historical trade surplus with the United States has become a deficit.

The second event is the US presidential election in November. Having just secured the Republican Party nomination, President Donald Trump is stepping up his “America first” platform. After establishing new tariffs on Canadian imports of aluminium in early August, Trump has moved to ban Chinese companies like WeChat and took to Facebook to accuse China of wanting Democratic Party candidate Joe Biden to win the presidential election, claiming this would allow China to “own our country, and our record setting stock markets would literally crash”.

Meanwhile, Biden has similarly been touting “buy American” economic rules for government projects and anti-China rhetoric in a bid to win over Trump’s nationalistic support base. A Pew Research Centre report released on July 30 found that 73 per cent of American adults have an unfavourable view of China, a historic high, with 78 per cent feeling the Chinese government is mostly to blame for the pandemic.

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The coronavirus hammering global trade and both US presidential candidates capitalising on xenophobic public opinion with protectionist platforms make for a volatile global order. The combination of these events signals a turn away from globalisation towards regionalism in the Asia-Pacific, led by a strengthening China and a retreating US.