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Asia

Between two giants

Dominic Ziegler: Banyan columnist, The Economist, HONG KONG

South-East Asia finds itself at the centre of the struggle between China and
America

2021 in brief

South Korea’s defence ministry plans to start building its first aircraft-carrier in 2021,
and to acquire fighter jets to operate on it. It is expected to buy American-made F-35B
jets, costing about $122m each

NO PART OF the world risks suffering more from the economic, strategic and military
rivalry now playing out between the United States and China than the 11 nations of
South-East Asia. And that rivalry will intensify in 2021.

On the one hand, many in the region are wary of President Xi Jinping’s mission to
reclaim for China the centrality it enjoyed in East Asia before the imperial depredations