Column internationally distributed by Project Syndicate.
September 2012 America’s strategy in Asia for more than a
century has sought a stable balance of power to prevent the rise
of any hegemon. Yet the United States, according to its official
National Security Strategy, is also committed to accommodating
“the emergence of a China that is peaceful and prosperous and
that cooperates with us to address common challenges and mutual
interests.” So America’s Asia policy has in some ways been at
war with itself. In fact, the US has played a key role in
China’s rise. For example, rather than sustain trade sanctions
against China after the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989, the
US decided instead to integrate the country into global
institutions. But US foreign policy had been notable for a
China-friendly approach long before that. In 1905, President
Theodore Roosevelt, who hosted the peace conference in
Portsmouth, New Hampshire, after the Russo-Japanese War, argued
for the return of Manchuria to Manchu-ruled China