After the Pivot [:] The Outlines of Trump’s Asia Strategy

Daniel Blumenthal, the-american-interest.com

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The President’s Asian trip sketched out a smart approach to containing North Korea, competing with China, and rebuilding trust with allies. Now comes the time to fill in the blanks.

Excerpt:

Getting Back in the Information Game

[T[he most important tool will be the rebuilding of U.S. capacity for public diplomacy, political warfare, and information campaigns. We have for too long ignored how powerful China’s global propaganda operations have become. Beijing’s mouthpieces constantly repeat the themes that China’s rise is inevitable and the United States is in decline. Unfortunately, these concepts are often repeated unwittingly in top American media. But these themes are easy to rebut because they are so far from reality. Despite the machismo, Xi is on the cusp of several mini-crises, including a trend toward a stagnant economy, a population that will look as old as Europe by 2030 but without the wealth, and imperial overstretch. China’s good money is leaving—for the United States.

In contrast, Asia’s “quad” has the truth on its side. China not only offers no compelling vision for the region as it cracks down on human rights and cultural and intellectual freedom, it is facing what Xi has called a deteriorating security situation—especially as it counts the forces of globalization as a security threat.

But the “free world” is not even fighting back against Chinese political warfare. For President Trump’s Asia vision to work, he needs to rebuild the United States Information Agency and realize that any success in Asia will be undermined by Chinese attempts to propagate a message to Asians that the United States is in decline and retreat.

 In sum, President Trump laid out an inspiring vision for the future of Korea and a comprehensive outline to compete with China. But there are many potential pitfalls and minefields along the way—and the hard work of translating visions and aspirations into to concrete plans and policies has just begun.

Published on: November 17, 2017

 Daniel Blumenthal is the director of Asian Studies at the American Enterprise Institute.