Heightened U.S. military deployments on the Korean Peninsula will only exacerbate the regional security dilemma that affects China, Russia and the DPRK. Meanwhile, exclusivity between the United States and ROK in some trade sectors will be hard to pull off.

While U.S. President Joe Biden’s Asia trip didn’t include China, Secretary of State Antony Blinken filled in some of the missing pieces in the puzzle of America’s Indo-Pacific diplomacy. His recent speech can be seen as a prelude to America’s long-delayed national security strategy.

The Biden administration’s leadership failure is the net effect of Capitol Hill’s revolving door politics. The White House is not in charge. The Big Defense is.

At the gathering in Washington, China was the elephant in the room. While it’s too soon to say which side has the upper hand in Southeast Asia, the summit offered a glimpse of how the competition will unfold.

There was nothing new revealed in the U.S. president’s visit, other than launching Indo-Pacific Economic Framework. Roping in Japan and South Korea and declaring that the U.S. would “intervene” in a Taiwan conflict, all amounted to old news.

Multiple factors are preventing the United States from unveiling a clear position. Uncertainties in domestic politics, the conflict in Ukraine, an alleged China-Russia axis and the Taiwan issue all factor in. The U.S. is at a foreign policy crossroads in a complex environment.

Washington is looking to shore up its Indo-Pacific strategy by further roping in South Korea and Japan. Its strategy is alive and well despite the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and China’s peripheral diplomacy will continue to face thorny challenges.

With the shadow of the Russia-Ukraine crisis looming in the background, America’s midterm elections will be a test of voters’ mood. Donald Trump’s sway over the Republican Party will be reinforced or repudiated. But economic factors may be the decisive factor.

Views differ on what triggered the current conflict. But whatever the pros and cons of NATO expansion, the conclusion must be that China, not Russia, is the greater long-term, structural and potentially lethal challenger to America.

The phrase “Ukraine today, Taiwan tomorrow” has been heard frequently in Taiwan since the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. But separatists on the island are not sure the United States would come to their rescue if Beijing moved toward reunification.