Research on the Obama Administration’s South China Seas Policy

　　Abstract: In comparison with the policies of previous US administrations towards the South China Seas, the policy of the Obama Administration has pushed towards the regionalization and internationalization of the South China Seas issue. Based on the needs of its AsiaPacific Strategy and its “return” to Southeast Asia, the Obama Administration has identified interests that draw close to forming mutual interests with the states of Southeast Asia. It has also supported the claims of Southeast Asian countries to sovereignty over the South China Seas in opposition to China’s claims of its rights and interests. Together the US and Southeast Asian states have expressed the view that they must collectively check China’s rising regional influence. While this may be, the US is more interested in using the South China Seas issue as a means of adjusting its strategy towards the Asia-Pacific region, and it will not go to the extreme of harming its interests in the region by interfering too deeply in the South China Seas. In 2011, Indonesia became the rotating Chair of ASEAN. As its own interests visàvis the South China Seas differ from those of Vietnam, it is unlikely that Indonesia will be more outspoken than Vietnam on the South China Seas. It is likely that the Obama Administration’s policy towards the South China Seas and this policy’s impacts on the region will be conditioned and lessened by the moderate policies of the key states in the region.

　　Author: Ju Hailong is an Associate Professor in the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies of Jinan University