US rebalance to Asia and China's increasing dominance
 

http://thediplomat.com/2015/04/the-p...rship-in-asia/
http://thediplomat.com/2015/04/china...putation-risk/
http://thediplomat.com/2015/04/china...e-final-tally/

While Americans follow their favorite Dancing with Stars, Kardashians, Duck Dynasty, etc. countries around the world are slowly but surely building platforms to remove USD from the center of world economy....but no worries, surely we can demand the rest of the world to give us "fair wage" right?:rolleyes:

We don't have great candidate in 2016 to mitigate this trend. FWIW, the current president does have good rapport in SEA.

The Chinese Strategic Tradition
 

Rather than start another thread seemed appropriate to put this in a recent China topic. I'll just post these links to two parts of an essay I came across. Have skimmed it only; will go deeper with morning coffee but seems a worthwhile look at a facet of China that may be of interest to those who keep a keen eye in that AO.

Part I

Part II

If nothing, some good recap of segments of Chinese history (and they have plenty to go around) that usually get short shrift here in the West.

Are we equipped at all to counter Chinese deceptive strategy? I am more and more inclined to think not :( IMHOO, we are inseparable frenemies ...and that makes China a bigger strategic threat than all the jihadis combined in the last century


How to make a cat eat a hot pepper?
You can force it down its throat, disguise it in cheese, or crush it up and sprinkle it on its back. In the last case, the cat will lick the pepper off, believing it is doing something for itself when it is really helping you.

Defectors told Pillsbury how China turned around American policy toward China in 1993 in what they call “the Clinton coup.”

Threatened with legislation that would cut off China’s low tariff exports to the U.S., Beijing went to work on advisers in President Clinton’s circle. They targeted “people who believed in free trade. They didn’t have to subvert them or compromise them in the classic espionage sense,” Pillsbury tells WND.

“They identified about five people who were known from their writings. [Deputy Treasury Secretary] Larry Summers was one, [Treasury Secretary] Bob Rubin was another, and Laura Tyson [Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers]. [These advisers] have made speeches ever since the 1993 turnaround – they are quite proud of their role.”

The pro-free trade lobby argues that America benefits from low-priced Chinese imports. Pillsbury counters, “In the short term, yes, you can buy cheaper things at Walmart, but longer term we’re going to be the No. 2 or No. 3 country in the world. If you measure things over two or three decades, it means the consequences for America’s economic primacy in the world are going to be really grave.”

“What the Chinese are very happy about and hope will continue is that we don’t have a grand coalition here inside the U.S. where people concerned about Christian issues and house churches, or the Dalai Lama, or military issues all cooperate together. Everyone is fragmented and there’s no cooperation among these different interest groups.

“This frankly is part of China’s recipe for success – to make sure conservatives only care about military issues and liberals only care about inequality. There’s no effort to recognize the Chinese challenge to us is a comprehensive one that threatens our primacy in the world,” he says.

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2015/02/u-s-charg...6J9yZ35tQlf.99


http://www.classicsofstrategy.com/20...-l-thomas.html

The US Navy should potentially consider Labuan Island as a stop over port or small base off the coast of North Borneo, about 100km south of the city of Kota Kinabalu.

It has a deep harbour and the bay of Brunei is an excellent bay for large naval ships.