Indo-Pacific Strategy and Greater Eurasia: Understanding and Response – 印太战略与大欧亚:认知与应对

The concept of Greater Eurasia and the Indo-Pacific is a major phenomenon in international politics in recent years. One of the two processes is based on the Eurasian continent, and the other is linked by the Indo-Pacific Ocean. The two processes have different subjects, different ideas, different political cultures, different ideological principles, and different degrees of openness, which make them have the characteristics of some systematic differences. Hence the need to put them into an analytical framework to answer the question of whether they will form a system and whether there will be a new opposition between the two systems. Due to the constraints of internal and external factors, there will no longer be a confrontation between the two major systems similar to the Cold War period, but in the context of the struggle for the construction of a new international order, it is possible to form a “soft system” and a “soft confrontation” between them. The U.S. Indo-Pacific strategy is obviously aimed at China. However, the Indo-Pacific process involves the participation of many countries and the content is diverse, which needs to be differentiated. China opposes the Cold War mentality of the Indo-Pacific strategy and the intention to contain China, but it should not oppose the connectivity of the Asia-Pacific and the Indian Ocean region, nor the economic cooperation of relevant countries. The Indo-Pacific process is likely to be a long-term process rather than a short-term phenomenon. It has its natural dynamics and is not entirely man-made. The Indo-Pacific process also has certain advantages, especially in the economic field. China can influence the Indo-Pacific process through bilateral or small multilateral cooperation with participating countries. From the perspective of grand strategy, the cooperation between China and Russia in the Greater Eurasian Process is not only beneficial to China, but also to the Greater Eurasian Process, and also helps to ease the strategic pressure on Russia, so it is in line with common strategic interests.