Heritage Foundation Leadership for America

A recent article in the New York Times began with this sentence: “George W. Bush, embattled at home, tied down in Iraq and watching the clock run out on his presidency, has found a diplomatic crutch in an unlikely place: China.”

For the United States, as a member of NATO, a treaty ally of Japan, Australia, and other nations, seeing China as a “diplomatic crutch” would be odd indeed.  But China is taking on great power status.  The U.S. is relying on it in dealing with crises in Burma and North Korea.  And China routinely calls on the U.S. to exercise its influence on Taiwan. 

Is the U.S. consigning its interests in East Asia to Co-management?