"The Indo-Pacific Strategy" of the Biden administration in the assessment of Chinese analytical centers: a narrative dimension of rivalry

The subject of this research article is the strategic narrative confrontation between China and the United States in the Indo-Pacific region as a key cognitive-discursive dimension of their rivalry. This confrontation is examined through the lens of the critical perception and constructive intellectual response of leading Chinese analytical centers to the Biden administration's "Indo-Pacific strategy." The analysis focuses not only on the competitive nature of this strategy as a tool for hegemonic containment but also on the multi-level character of the response from Chinese expert communities. This response includes a systematic deconstruction of the U.S. narrative about a "free and open order," a deep evaluation of its effectiveness and internal contradictions, as well as the development of a positive alternative in the form of principles of open regionalism and a community of shared destiny. Thus, the attention is centered on the transformation of strategic rivalry into a struggle for the interpretation of regional order and the production of legitimate knowledge about its future. The study is based on qualitative systematic content analysis and a comparative method. The theoretical optics employed include the concepts of "competing strategic narratives" and "institutional balancing" from international relations theory. The empirical basis includes official U.S. documents and publications from key Chinese analytical centers, enabling a comparative analysis of their positions. The scientific novelty of the article lies in the comprehensive application of the analytical framework of strategic narratives for a systematic study of how great power rivalry materializes in the struggle for dominance in the field of knowledge and interpretations. The systematic content analysis has for the first time revealed a targeted counter-narrative formed by Chinese centers during a three-stage process: deconstruction, evaluation, and constructive confrontation. This counter-narrative challenges the legitimacy of American regional hegemony and promotes an alternative, inclusive vision of order. The main conclusion is that strategic rivalry has reached a level of competition for narrative hegemony, the essence of which is revealed in the fundamental contradiction between the exclusive logic of bloc containment and the inclusive logic of joint development. The outcome of this competition for the definition of meanings and values of the region becomes a key factor determining the strategic choices of states in the Indo-Pacific region and sets the trajectory for the evolution of regional order in the long term.