A new Cold War?

A US Navy maritime exercise with Asean ships at the gulf of Thailand in 2019. How China and Asean respond to US moves will shape our future, says Mahmud. — AFP

“THE Aukus agreement very vividly shows that East Asia has become the focus of United States global security strategy,” Prof Zhu Feng of Nanjing University was recently quoted in The New York Times in an article on the trilateral security pact signed on Sept 15, 2021, between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States.

“For most Chinese scholars like me, we’re really very scared that in the competition between Beijing and Washington, they are only looking at domestic economic development....