Opinion | US ‘lone wolf’ diplomacy helps China win Asean hearts and minds
23 Jul 2025
Rather than viewing Beijing’s regional inroads as setbacks, Washington seems more than happy to weaken once-cherished bonds with allies
The Wat Xieng Thong Buddhist temple in Luang Prabang, Laos, stands both as a spiritual sanctuary and a historical artefact. From 2011 to 2014, the US State Department helped fund the temple’s restoration. When then US president Barack Obama visited the site in 2016, he framed such efforts as part of America’s “profound moral and humanitarian obligation” to address the devastation still plaguing Laos from the US’ largest per capita bombing campaign in history.
Nine years later, US engagement in Southeast Asia has undergone a tectonic shift; there is little interest in moral obligation, let alone cultural preservation. During July’s Asean meetings, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived in Malaysia armed not with aid, but in the wake of threats of escalated tariffs against Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar and Laos. Soon after, the State Department eliminated its Office of Multilateral Affairs for East Asia, dismantling the institution tasked with managing relationships with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ 10 member states.
Economic coercion, decoupling and a retreat from multilateralism are the pillars of “America first” diplomacy. While China previously deployed “wolf warrior” tactics, with its diplomats responding aggressively to criticism of the nation, the second Donald Trump administration has spawned a different breed of diplomacy: the “lone wolf” doctrine. Unmoored from alliances and indifferent to precedent, it is characterised by erratic, self-inflicted isolation.
Lone wolf diplomacy apparently seeks to weaken bonds between the US and its allies, framing traditional alliances as burdens rather than assets. The result is a diplomacy of perpetual volatility.
The Trump administration has weaponised tariffs as instruments of leverage, recently sending letters that threaten to impose punitive levies of 20 per cent to 50 per cent on over 20 countries on August 1.
Japan, a treaty ally since 1951, faces additional tariffs on top of existing steel and aluminium duties. South Korea, Malaysia and Brunei confront similar pressures. Meanwhile, Laos faces 40 per cent tariffs. Such measures risk destabilising the country’s fragile post-conflict economy.