One week before his Hiroshima visit, U.S. President Barack Obama said in his interview with NHK that his purpose is not to revisit the past, but to affirm the need of peace and a world without nuclear weapons. Whereas the declared message of his Hiroshima visit is denuclearization, the unspoken connotations could be more meaningful.

Whether or not Donald Trump’s outlandish personality will carry him all the way to the White House, China-US relations and respect for China’s rise are so essential that any incoming president will act to keep the relationship stable.

As the U.S. Indulgence towards Japan grows, an emboldened Japan will act more aggressively. A successful U.S. Asia strategy hinges upon a balanced policy toward both China and Japan. However, the scale is well tilted towards Japan now. If Obama wants to make a stable U.S.-China relations one of his foreign policy legacies, he should think over before leap.

China believes that the South China Sea issue has badly influenced the bilateral relationship, but despite Rodrigo Duterte’s inexperience in foreign affairs, Beijing looks forward to practical approaches of the new administration of the Philippines to appropriately address the problems and disputes. The country should also keep in mind the importance of the regional peace and stability, and reshape its perception of China.

Despite western press fearing the next Philippine president as a “strongman,” President Duterte won the majority of votes from an election with a record 82 percent turnout. For the first time, Philippines is poised to have its first president who is a self-declared socialist, and who wants to hedge bets between U.S. security assurance and Chinese economic cooperation.

The following are the opening remarks by James A. Baker, III at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing in Washington DC on May 12, 2016.

Chinese media is already weighing in on the implications of a race between Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump. Clinton presents to Chinese politicians an undeniably superior alternative to Trump’s loose cannon: a known entity with predictable behavior who will maintain the current tenor of bilateral diplomatic dialogue.

While Duterte seriously values the Philippines’ long-standing security alliance with the U.S., he seems to be more enthusiastic in repairing the Philippines’ damaged political ties with China. Rommel Banlaoi warns, however, that excessive accommodation of China could potentially undermine the Philippines’ long standing alliance with the United States.

Much can be accomplished before President Obama leaves office in developing the new model of major-power relations along the lines China’s President Xi has proposed, and there is good reason to expect such accomplishments.

The US strategy ignores the legitimate desire of most countries for peace and development and upsets the natural balance in the region. If Washington insists on playing the role of “regional balancer” under a misguided Cold War mentality, it would achieve nothing but create imbalance and walk right into the “hegemon’s trap” despite repeated historical lessons.