Sino File | Forget the Xi-Trump bromance, it’s time the US came clean on its vision for China and Asia

Is it a pivot to Asia, a de-pivot or a re-pivot? And where does China fit in when it’s a case of America first?

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President Donald Trump shakes hands with a Chinese opera performer during his visit to the Forbidden Palace in Beijing. Photo: AP

Published: 4:33pm, 11 Nov 2017Updated: 4:33pm, 11 Nov 2017

The foreign trips of American presidents often serve as defining moments for their administrations.

And now is a particularly telling time for President Donald Trump to visit Asia-Pacific. As he tours Southeast and Northeast Asia, with stops in traditional US allies Japan, South Korea and the Philippines as well as sometime rivals China and Vietnam, it is high time for him to articulate a clear US strategy for engaging the region.

The trip, Trump’s second major foray abroad, after his visit in early summer to the Middle East and Europe, comes at a critical historic juncture. The region is grappling with a host of unsettling potential security flashpoints, ranging from North Korea’s nuclear programme to maritime disputes in the East and South China Seas. Get his strategy wrong and there is the potential for conflict in the world’s economically most dynamic – but politically, diplomatically and militarily most fragile – region.

North Korea’s Kim Jong-un could be high on the agenda. Photo: Reuters

Since the end of the second world war, the US has been the pre-eminent power in the Asia-Pacific region, providing the stability needed for the economic boom of the past 70 years. All post-war US presidents have committed their country to engagement here.

While Trump has suggested North Korea’s nuclear ambitions and US economic objectives are his top priorities, he is also expected to present America’s new vision for Asia – the first time for him to articulate how the region fits in with his isolationist and economically protectionist “America First” policy.

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.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Is it a pivot to Asia, a de-pivot or a re-pivot? And where does China fit in when it’s a case of America first?

Is it a pivot to Asia, a de-pivot or a re-pivot? And where does China fit in when it’s a case of America first?