US moves to contain China create unnecessary tensions

Where China-US relations go will have a bearing on not just the bilateral relations between the two major powers, but also the stability of the entire world. As such, there is enough reason for the international community to show concern about the United States' plan to send Marine Expeditionary Units to East Asia as part of its efforts to contain China.

It is hard not to see a close association between what the US has said about China in the past couple of months and its plan to deploy the marine units in East Asia. In its National Security Strategy released in December, the Donald Trump administration listed China and Russia as the biggest challenge to US power. Not long after that, US Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis released the US' National Defense Strategy, which stated that "great power competition, not terrorism, is now the primary focus of US national security".

What is even more worrying is that the US is making its case about the threat from China by pointing fingers at Beijing's efforts to build military outposts in the South China Sea and its military exercises around Taiwan.