4. Main
ideas
For scholars:
HADR lets China
play the status
role of regional
order provider
For
policymakers:
The West’s HADR
narrative has
created its own
reality in the
region
For the public:
China’s navy need
not fight the US
Navy, if it can
replace it
5. 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami
US Deployed:
▷ 25 ships,
including
aircraft
carrier
▷ 15,000
personnel
▷ 103 aircraft
Indonesian
attitudes:
79% said
post-tsunami
aid had
“improved their
impression of
America”
US officials:
Declared a ‘soft power’ win
8. Why HADR builds
status
▷ Not as ‘status symbol’
alone…
▷ … But through
responsible regional
roles…
▷ … Performed sufficiently
dramatically to shift
perceptions
9. Implications
More
ambitious
PLAN
▷ Greater
citizen
protection?
▷ On patrol in
the Pacific?
US and allies’
monopoly
▷ China as a
competitor in
international
‘public
goods’
Chinese order
▷ Giving
legitimacy to
a ‘Chinese
order’ – with
Chinese
rules
“China’s carrier-
centered navy is
not designed so
much to
challenge U.S.
maritime
supremacy as to
inherit it.”
- Sam Roggeveen,
Lowy Institute