US seeks to link regional allies to deter China, academic says

The US is intensifying multinational drills around Taiwan to link regional allies in a deterrence network aimed at preventing Chinese aggression, a Taiwanese academic said on Thursday last week, warning that Beijing could respond with large-scale exercises and “gray zone” pressure this year.“The US has abandoned the kind of broad, framework-based multilateral cooperation it previously pursued in the Indo-Pacific” region, Kuo Yu-jen (郭育仁), director of National Sun Yat-sen University’s Institute of China and Asia-Pacific Studies, said at a seminar in Taipei. Washington has instead anchored its regional strategy to a specific military objective — defending the First Island Chain and Taiwan — Kuo said, citing a shift reflected in the US National Security Strategy released in December last year