US President Barack Obama’s APEC summit in Hawai‘i clearly speeds up the tempo of the US "back to Asia strategy." It is obvious that no other region of the world, in Obama's mind, is more vital to the long-term interests of the United States than the Asia-Pacific. This policy is backed up by his hardworking team including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, who respectfully emphasized the thrust of continued US diplomatic and military forward-deployment throughout the Asia-Pacific. However, intensifying the military presence of the United States in Asia actually intensifies pressure on China. Cai Penghong, Senior Fellow at the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies, reports that "For Chinese observers, the Obama administration wants to build a new trans-Pacific alliance in the Asia-Pacific along the lines of the US-led trans-Atlantic military alliance, NATO."

The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of the East-West Center or any organization with which the author is affiliated.