Why China won't map the future
The term Indo-Pacific is a message to a rising China that it cannot expect others to accept its self-image as the centre of the region and the world.
From left, Joko Widodo, Narendra Modi, Shinzo Abe, Scott Morrison and Donald Trump offer a counterweight to China's rise in the region. Illustration: David Rowe
The term "Indo-Pacific" may seem nothing more than a made-up new name for a map of maritime Asia that privileges India and dilutes China. But it has a rich history. Maritime Asia has never been a China-centric region.
An integrated two-ocean perspective has an ancient pedigree, with coastal India and archipelagic south-east Asia the true connective zone. This is a more enduring way of understanding Asia than short-lived 20th-century notions such as the Asia-Pacific.
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