Follow us on social

Shutterstock_2298483571

Caught in the middle? East Asians worried about US-China conflict

US treaty allies are especially concerned that escalating tensions will have negative consequences for their countries. Wonder why.

Reporting | Asia-Pacific

Nine out of ten adult citizens of three key East Asian nations with which the United States has enjoyed close military ties are either “somewhat” or “very worried” about a geopolitical confrontation between the U.S. and China, according to a new poll released Monday by the Eurasia Group Foundation.

An average of 62 percent of respondents in Singapore, South Korea, and the Philippines said they believed more intense competition between the two global powers will have negative consequences for their countries’ national security, according to the survey, which was carried out by YouGov.

Respondents also expressed concern that escalating tensions between Beijing and Washington would also result in political polarization within their countries as opposing parties would be pressed to take sides with one power or the other.

Significant majorities in South Korea and the Philippines — both treaty allies of the United States — expressed particular concern about both the national security and domestic political ramifications of increased tensions, while respondents in Singapore evidenced significantly less concern, according to EGF’s report on the poll results, entitled “Caught in the Middle: Views of US-China Competition Across Asia.”

Unlike the two U.S. allies, respondents in Singapore expressed slightly more favorable views of China (56 percent) than of the U.S. (48 percent). Views of China were particularly negative in South Korea where 85 percent of respondents expressed either “unfavorable” or “very unfavorable views” of their much larger neighbor. In the Philippines, 70 percent of respondents said they had unfavorable views of China.

The poll was taken between late April and early May amid rising tensions between Washington and Beijing over a number of issues, particularly Taiwan, new U.S. military basing agreements with the Philippines, and territorial claims and naval exercises in the South China Sea. A total of 1,500 adults in the three countries were interviewed, 500 in each country. They included a nationally representative sample in Singapore and South Korea, while, for the Philippines, the interview were representative of the online population, according to EGF.

Respondents were initially asked to choose among a number of problems what they felt were the most “pressing concerns” facing their country. Large majorities across all three countries cited unemployment and economic recession, and the wealth gap between rich and poor, with climate change coming in a strong third. 

The next most commonly cited pressing concern, however, was “tensions between the U.S. and China” (49.2 percent), ahead of “global pandemics,” “political instability,” and “human rights,” among other issues. Nearly six in ten South Koreans cited U.S.-China tensions as a “pressing concern,” followed by 48.6 percent of Singaporean respondents, and 41.3 percent of Filipino respondents. 


charnsitr/shutterstock
Reporting | Asia-Pacific
Trump ASEAN
Top photo credit: U.S. President Donald Trump looks at Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., next to Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim when posing for a family photo with leaders at the ASEAN Summit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, October 26, 2025. Vincent Thian/Pool via REUTERS

‘America First’ meets ‘ASEAN Way’ in Kuala Lumpur

Asia-Pacific

The 2025 ASEAN and East Asia Summits in Kuala Lumpur beginning today are set to be consequential multilateral gatherings — defining not only ASEAN’s internal cohesion but also the shape of U.S.–China relations in the Indo-Pacific.

President Donald Trump’s participation will be the first by a U.S. president in an ASEAN-led summit since 2022. President Biden skipped the last two such summits in 2023 and 2024, sending then-Vice President Harris instead.

keep readingShow less
iran, china, russia
Top photo credit: Top image credit: Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov and and Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi shake hands as Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu looks on during their meet with reporters after their meeting at Diaoyutai State Guest House on March 14, 2025 in Beijing, China. Lintao Zhang/Pool via REUTERS

'Annulled'! Russia won't abide snapback sanctions on Iran

Middle East

“A raider attack on the U.N. Security Council.” This was the explosive accusation leveled by Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov this week. His target was the U.N. Secretariat and Western powers, whom he blamed for what Russia sees as an illegitimate attempt to restore the nuclear-related international sanctions on Iran.

Beyond the fiery rhetoric, Ryabkov’s statement contained a message: Russia, he said, now considers all pre-2015 U.N. sanctions on Iran, snapped back by the European signatories of the 2015 nuclear deal (JCPOA) — the United Kingdom, France, Germany — “annulled.” Moscow will deepen its military-technical cooperation with Tehran accordingly, according to Ryabkov.

This is more than a diplomatic spat; it is the formal announcement of a split in international legal reality. The world’s major powers are now operating under two irreconcilable interpretations of international law. On one side, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany assert that the sanctions snapback mechanism of the JCPOA was legitimately triggered for Iran’s alleged violations. On the other, Iran, Russia, and China reject this as an illegitimate procedural act.

This schism was not inevitable, and its origin reveals a profound incongruence. The Western powers that most frequently appeal to the sanctity of the "rules-based international order" and international law have, in this instance, taken an action whose effects fundamentally undermine it. By pushing through a legal maneuver that a significant part of the Security Council considers illegitimate, they have ushered the world into a new and more dangerous state. The predictable, if imperfect, framework of universally recognized Security Council decisions is being replaced by a system where legal facts are determined by political interests espoused by competing power blocs.

This rupture followed a deliberate Western choice to reject compromises in a stand-off with Iran. While Iran was in a technical violation of the provisions of the JCPOA — by, notably, amassing a stockpile of highly enriched uranium (up to 60% as opposed to the 3.67% for a civilian use permissible under the JCPOA), there was a chance to avert the crisis. In the critical weeks leading to the snapback, Iran had signaled concessions in talks with the International Atomic Energy Agency in Cairo, in terms of renewing cooperation with the U.N. nuclear watchdog’s inspectors.

keep readingShow less
On Ukraine and Venezuela, Trump needs to dump the sycophants
Top Photo Credit: (Official White House Photo by Molly Riley)

On Ukraine and Venezuela, Trump needs to dump the sycophants

Europe

While diplomats labored to produce the Dayton Accords in 1995, then-Secretary of Defense Bill Perry advised, “No agreement is better than a bad agreement.” Given that Washington’s allies in London, Paris, Berlin and Warsaw are opposed to any outcome that might end the war in Ukraine, no agreement may be preferable. But for President Trump, there is no point in equating the illusion of peace in Ukraine with a meaningless ceasefire that settles nothing.

Today, Ukraine is mired in corruption, starting at the very highest levels of the administration in Kyiv. Sending $175 billion of borrowed money there "for however long it takes" has turned out to be worse than reckless. The U.S. national sovereign debt is surging to nearly $38 trillion and rising by $425 billion with each passing month. President Trump needs to turn his attention away from funding Joe Biden’s wars and instead focus on the faltering American economy.

keep readingShow less

LATEST

QIOSK

Newsletter

Subscribe now to our weekly round-up and don't miss a beat with your favorite RS contributors and reporters, as well as staff analysis, opinion, and news promoting a positive, non-partisan vision of U.S. foreign policy.