Why China will need a ‘more persuasive security offer’ to win over middle powers

Just weeks before Chinese leader Xi Jinping is due to visit the White House, tensions have flared between Washington and its allies after one of the administration’s sharpest rebukes yet. Speaking in Manila on August 10, Elbridge Colby, undersecretary of defence for policy, pressed regional partners to increase defence spending and align more closely with American priorities. He said Washington sought “partners, not protectorates” and cautioned against “the delusion of fashionable but...