In the second half of a two-part podcast, hosted by Carnegie–Tsinghua’s Paul Haenle, Carnegie’s Michael Swaine examined the important role of maritime security in U.S.-China relations. He argued that while the United States cannot and should not necessarily defer to all of China's core interests, it must recognize that China’s desire to have greater control over its immediate environment in the Western Pacific is a fundamental underlying issue in the bilateral relationship.

This Chinese aspiration will increasingly confront what many Americans see as an essential condition for stability in the region—the maritime predominance of the United States. In order to manage this disparity, China and the United States will need to build greater understanding about how both countries can handle common hotspots in the region, such as North Korea, Taiwan, and maritime disputes. While these issues have no short-term solutions, there are ways they can be handled on a more stable basis, alongside a much greater presence by the Chinese, Swaine added.

If the United States continues to assume that the only solution for a peaceful security environment in Asia is to neutralize the capacity of the Chinese to operate in the Western Pacific, including their military power, the risk of conflict in Asia will remain high, according to Swaine. He argued that the United States and China need to have more informal dialogues about how each side views the future Asian environment in order to ensure that both countries’ visions converge as much as possible. This does not suggest the United States accommodates China—it must be a mutual accommodation, he added.

Michael Swaine

Michael Swaine is a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and one of the most prominent American analysts in Chinese security studies. Formerly a senior policy analyst at the RAND Corporation, Swaine is a specialist in Chinese defense and foreign policy, U.S.–China relations, and East Asian international relations.

Paul Haenle

Paul Haenle is the director of the Carnegie–Tsinghua Center. Prior to joining Carnegie, he served from June 2007 to June 2009 as the director for China, Taiwan, and Mongolian Affairs on the National Security Council staffs of former president George W. Bush and President Barack Obama.