Financial Times, "China and US create less pacific ocean" (Analysis)
“With the troops already out of Iraq and the war in Afghanistan winding down, the administration of President Barack Obama has called for a significant transfer in resources and strategy towards the Asia-Pacific region – even at a time when the country’s finances are under huge pressure. ‘We will be strengthening our presence in the Asia-Pacific,’ Mr Obama declared last month, ‘and budget reductions will not come at the expense of that critical region.’
The reason is China. As Mr Xi will be asked to discuss when he visits the Pentagon [today], China has invested heavily in recent years in weapons that may be able to challenge American primacy in the Pacific, including radar-evading stealth fighters and anti-ship ballistic missiles. Those investments have now very much captured the attention of American policymakers.
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The militaries of both countries are barely on speaking terms. And at the very top, leaders need to have franker conversations about their countries’ long-term interests and intentions.
Hu Jintao, China’s strait-laced current leader, is said by US officials to give little away even in private. That is why all eyes will be on the avuncular Mr Xi in Washington this week."
