US, China risking status quo with actions, says Singapore

Bloomberg

Singapore Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen criticised both the US and China for taking “unilateral actions,” lumping the two rivals together as nations challenging the current global order.
In a speech to the annual IISS Shangri-La Dialogue security forum in Singapore, Ng said the world’s two-biggest economies were similarly using security considerations to justify their behavior — the US on trade and China for its military buildup in the disputed South China Sea.
“Whatever the merit of these arguments, these deviations from global norms challenge the status quo and accepted rules which have hitherto benefited Asia and the regions beyond,” Ng said. “It is plainly obvious that local politics and the shift in relative strengths of global or regional powers are in fact changing the rules of the international order previously entrenched.”
Ng’s comments — he accused the US of “revisiting the status quo” — represent some of the strongest criticism yet from Southeast Asia over President Donald Trump’s stance on trade. Trump’s recent tariffs on steel and aluminum imports have targeted allies in Europe, plus Japan, Canada and Mexico, while the US is engaged in an
escalating war of words with China, risking a full-blown trade war.
The remarks reflect concern that smaller states, including open economies like Singapore, risk being caught in the wash of the US trade actions. Singapore has warned previously that countries should not be squeezed by competition between the US and a rising China, or forced to take sides.
It comes as Group of Seven finance chiefs issued a rare rebuke of a member nation, claiming US trade actions could undermine global economic confidence and threaten the effectiveness of the Western alliance.
Ng cited a “reversal of roles with the United States,” adding it was now Chinese President Xi Jinping “who champions globalisation.” Xi lay out a defense for globalisation in a speech at Davos in January 2017, and has strongly advocated for the current system in subsequent speeches, though countries in Europe and elsewhere say China has failed to follow its words with actions to open up its open economy.
Ng called out China for intensifying its military buildup on reclaimed reefs in the South China Sea. Beijing has recently installed missiles on some outposts and regularly warns ships and planes from other countries away from territory it claims. While Singapore is not a claimant in the South China Sea, its neighbours such as the Philippines and Malaysia are.
“Both China and the United States are attempting to address perceived inequalities and accepted principles or practices which disadvantage them,”
Ng said. Ng called on the US and China to improve their relationship in the interests of others. That’s even as the Pentagon in a report earlier this year warned of a new era of great power rivalry with China and Russia.
Long-running disputes between the world’s two largest economic powers have flared amid the Trump administration’s efforts to counter Chinese influence.