The time has come for the United States to forge a collective defense pact in Asia to counter China’s growing military threat, argues Ely Ratner in a new essay from the forthcoming issue of Foreign Affairs. China’s military modernization and territorial ambitions have fundamentally altered the strategic landscape—and only with a formal arrangement can Washington and its partners convince Beijing that aggression would come “at an unacceptable cost.”
China seeks to “seize Taiwan, control the South China Sea, weaken U.S. alliances, and ultimately dominate the region,” writes Ratner, who served as Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs in the Biden administration. If it is allowed to succeed, Beijing will create “a Chinese-led order that relegates the United States to the rank of a diminished continental power: less prosperous, less secure, and unable to fully access or lead the world’s most important markets and technologies.”
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