It’s been a busy year for both the U.S. and China as one sought to preserve influence in Asia and the other to expand it.
U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping will be maneuvering for position this week to sell their respective Asian strategies to the 21 nations of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Manila.
Obama can tout the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade deal encompassing a dozen Pacific nations, among the successes of his “rebalance to Asia.” Xi is fresh from state visits to the U.K., Singapore, and Vietnam, plus the first meeting with a Taiwanese leader in seven decades. He’ll be pushing for a bigger role on the world stage and flagging achievements like the establishment of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the expectation it will soon achieve reserve currency status for the yuan.