Source:
https://scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1258582/china-too-can-play-containment-gameOpinion
China, too, can play the containment game
Richard Halloran says China's growing footprint in America's own backyard won't go unnoticed
China's President Xi Jinping shakes hands with Mexico's President Enrique Pena Nieto as they visit the archaeological site of Chichen itza, State of Yucatan. Photo: AFP
When Xi Jinping sat down with Barack Obama in a luxurious estate on the edge of the California desert over the weekend, the Chinese president delivered a subtle message to his American host: China can play the containment game just as well as the US.
Xi was fresh from a jaunt through Trinidad and Tobago, Costa Rica and Mexico. He tested the doctrine proclaimed by president James Monroe in 1823, in which the US insisted that outsiders stay out of the Americas.