Dr. Hamed Vafaei in an interview with the site of Strategic Council on Foreign Relations pointed out to spiraling tension between the U.S. and China within the past few months and the measures taken by both sides in such an atmosphere. He spelled out:” in view of slow transfer of power from Atlantic to Pacific, the lion’s share of development that is taking place in relations between China and the U.S. were predictable. The transfer which is coincided with lowering the U.S. clout in international system and emergence of new poles continues to flow”.
He added:” one of the hot spots where existing and emerging powers of the world compete with, is Indo – Pacific region. When analyzing developments of this region and its affinities, we come to conclude that the more the atmosphere of Indo –Pacific is radicalized heading towards militarization and securitization, it will maintain the U.S. interests. Likewise, the more objectives are based on trade relations, economic equations and financial issues, the Chinese interests are maintained; because any initiative in military and security equations on the ground are at the U.S. disposal”.
The expert on China affairs referred to analytical reports published on military budget, equipment, and military influence of China as well as the U.S. and said:” unlike the U.S. supremacy in military field, China has managed to take the initiative in economic equation of the region, and thus to have stronger influence through concluding numerous agreements and treaties. Although, they have also been active in military and security fields, emerging security equations, and manufacturing of military equipment such as missiles, submarines as well as holding numerous military war games with other countries”.
Having underscored that the situation in South East Asia have become complicated comparing with few months ago, Vafaei added:” through instigating measures that U.S. has adopted in Indo – Pacific region, it has driven the situations of the region towards “hardening the hard” and has been successful to some extent. Under such circumstance, despite all instigations we witnessed during the past several months, Chinese made every effort not to be engaged in a game where they have no initiative”.

China’s Effort to Prevent “Hardening the Hard” of Atmosphere
Having stated that the initiative in the war of narrations rests with the West, he noted:” that’s why China makes all its efforts to deal with Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan and or to expedite the stationing of THAAD missile system in South Korea, which at the China’s request, Seoul had already adopted the policy of non-stationing them, and thus, avoid advancing the ambience towards hardening the hard. Many years ago, the then Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives paid a visit to Taiwan. At the same time, China launched a war game in Taiwan’s vicinity and international waters, but in the recent military exercise launched to react Pelosi’s visit, Chinese breached the airspace and marine reserves of Taiwan at three or four points”.
The university professor touched upon the departure of Latvia and Estonia from CEEC (China and Central & Eastern European Cooperation) and reminded:” positions and approaches of China have become tougher because of the West provocations, but the hardening is the reaction of an emerging power to the U.S. incendiaries. “Development” was the key word and the chief objective in the agenda of Chinese authorities, but during the last decade, because of developments and changes made in international system, as well as gaining importance of Indo – Pacific in the foreign policy of Western countries, China has added the concept of “Security” to the development as well”.

Serious Attention Paid by China to “Soft Security”
Vafaei explained:” the two pronged security, i.e. Hard Security consisting of military and strategic equipment, and “Soft Security” consisting of economic security, financial relations, foodstuffs security, and energy security. China is strongly working on Soft Security and shows that the fulcrum of China’s foreign and domestic policy is fluctuating between the development and the security”.
Having commented on the consequences of hardening ambience in South East Asia, and the contingency of showing a tougher reaction from China to the U.S. provocations, the expert on China’s issues said:” Beijing has explicitly announced that it supports the Hong Kong model to peacefully annex Taiwan. China will take no action to militarily annex of Taiwan, until and unless it is obliged and forced to react. They are not potentially ready to attack Taiwan, because they consider it as a part of their territory. Moreover, concerning Ms. Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, more than 170 countries of the world expressed their support to China. There are only a few countries that recognized Ms. Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan”.
He considered the domestic situation of Taiwan to analyze China’s measures as important and continued:” China is also active in preparing the public opinion of Taiwan to admit the annexation. If we bring ethnical issues to our considerations, Taiwanese are, in fact, a part of Chinese and China’s resorting to military action against them seems to be inconceivable, until and unless the equations formed due to the U.S. movements and treaties in the region, makes China react”.
Having said that Xi Jinping will be most probably reelected in the next presidential term and the country will adopt the same ping pong policy versus the U.S., Vafaei said:” the radical fraction that is present in Taiwan may call for military confrontation with China and the U.S. intervention, but the Taiwanese sage are, by no means, looking for war with China; because they know they will be destroyed and their economy will be annihilated”.
The expert on China’s affairs spelled out:” contingent clash will be ultimately beneficial to the U.S. and in the course of Pelosi’s visit, Taiwanese analysts, elites, and media repeatedly criticized the visit. They kept questioning that what would be the benefits of her visit to Taiwan? the visit only served the interests of the U.S. and China! And China surrounded Taiwan. In fact, Taiwanese believed that in the course of the visit, the U.S. and China maintained their interests. It was only Taiwan that lost from various aspects”.