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David Stanley Ford

Trip to Asia to highlight China’s increasing power

By The Associated Press    Comments Comment on this article0
Published: November 9, 2009

BEIJING — Days after coming to power in September, Japan’s new prime minister broached forming a new East Asian trading bloc with rival China — one that would exclude the United States.

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Highlights of Obama’s trip to Asia
Thursday: Departs for Japan, Singapore, China and South Korea, through Nov. 19. En route to Tokyo, Japan, stops at Elmendorf Air Base, Alaska, to speak to troops.

Friday: Arrives in Tokyo.

Saturday: Events in Tokyo. Travels to Singapore for the annual summit of the Asia-Pacific Cooperation Forum.

Sunday: Attends APEC meetings in Singapore. Travels to Shanghai, China.

Nov. 16: Events in Shanghai. Travels to Beijing.

Nov. 17: Events in Beijing.

Nov. 18: Events in Beijing. Travels to Seoul, South Korea.

Nov. 19: Events in Seoul. Returns to Washington.

Troops to remain at Okinawa until deal, Japanese leader says
TOKYO — Japan’s foreign minister said Sunday that no deal on relocating U.S. troops on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa can be expected during President Barack Obama’s visit this week, saying the issue needs more time to resolve. Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada said that "an agreement between the heads of state holds heavy meaning,” but cannot be expected to be completed during Obama’s visit. Washington and Tokyo agreed in 2006 that the Marine airfield in Futenma, a crowded city on Okinawa, would be relocated to another part of the island. But Japan’s government changed after August elections, and Okinawans have pushed to move the base off the island entirely.

The Associated Press

Some in Washington took it as a snub from the nation that has been America’s rock in Asia for decades. Even more, Tokyo’s new rhetoric underscored how China’s rapid rise to power is challenging Washington’s once-dominant sway in the region.

This is the reality President Barack Obama confronts as he departs Thursday for his first Asia trip, perhaps his most challenging overseas journey yet. He’ll find a region outgrowing a half-century of U.S. supremacy and questioning America’s relevance to its future. More so than Obama’s previous foreign trips, this nine-day, four-country tour has the president on something like a salvage mission.

Obama stops first in Japan, a traditional U.S. stalwart now looking toward closer engagement with China and the rest of Asia. He makes a two-city stop in China, where leaders proud of their country’s one-generation leap to prosperity seek a bigger say in shaping the region’s affairs.

The president also visits Singapore for a summit of Asia-Pacific leaders, where his participation is being cut by a day, and wraps up his trip in South Korea. Those countries are having to accommodate a more muscular China while wondering whether a U.S. weakened by financial crisis is in decline.

Throughout his travels, starting with a scene-setting speech in Japan, Obama is expected to deliver a message of staunch U.S. commitment to old friends and newer partners alike, promising to help keep what for decades has been one of the fastest growing regions of the world secure and thriving, according to U.S. officials.

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David Stanley Ford



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