President Obama’s “tour around China” and China’s response that “China is right here whether he (Obama) comes or not”¹ reflect a delicate US-China estrangement. The China-Japan Diaoyu Island dispute is further complicated by Prime Minister Abe’s Yasukuni Shrine visit, fanning the flames of nationalism. Is geopolitics returning to Asia, or has it never gone away? Can Asian regionalism hold vis-a-vis the rise of a new round of great power rivalries in Asia? Is China a constructive contributor to Asian regionalism, or a divisive saboteur? This article argues that China is a constructive participant in Asian regionalism, though with its own characteristics. Since President Xi Jinping came to office at the end of 2012, China has been pushing through a new type of regionalism, i.e., building a wider Asian community based on infrastructure links and historical and cultural linkages.

Read full article at www.theasanforum.org.