'America First' policy dooms US' Indo-Pacific strategy to failure

While US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's elaboration on a free and open Indo-Pacific at a business forum in Washington on Monday, two days before he embarked on a trip to Asia, was not short of lofty words and promises, it did lack honesty, sincerity and substance.

In defining the strategy, Pompeo said the United States seeks "partnership, not domination". Yet it is clear that the latter is exactly what the US does want. Having been the dominant power in the region since the end of World War II, it now feels that position is threatened by China's rise. The Donald Trump administration's so-called Indo-Pacific strategy is a rebranding of the pivot to Asia strategy of the Obama administration with the same aim of countering China's growing influence in the region, which is viewed by Washington as a challenge to its dominance.

Pompeo and other senior State Department officials have tried to depict the Indo-Pacific strategy as inclusive and not meant to contain China, but such words are not credible.