US' unilateralism and isolationism will ultimately become a crutch
On May 30, US Secretary of Defense James Mattis renamed the US Pacific Command to "Indo-Pacific Command" to recognize "the increasing connectivity of the Indian and Pacific Oceans".
The United States calls itself a Pacific nation, claiming that its five states border the Pacific Ocean, and it has a number of US allies in the Asia-Pacific region.
The outgoing commander of the former US Pacific Command, Navy Admiral Harry Harris, who has been nominated by US President Donald Trump as ambassador to the Republic of Korea, said great power competition is back in the Indo-Pacific. It's a "region open to investment and free, fair, and reciprocal trade not bound by any nation's predatory economics or threat of coercion, for the Indo-Pacific has many belts and many roads," he said.
