American concerns in Asia

Articles and editorials have begun to appear with frequency in the Jakarta post regarding the recent nuclear test conducted by North Korea. The general feel of these pieces is that N. Korea threatens to destabilize the region. Some of these editorials come from former advisors in the US government. They are fairly frank. One made clear that real concern for the US (and American hegemony) is the rising power of China. The Chinese (even Singaporean Chinese) are aware of this ascent, but few seem to realize that the weapons and technology gap is still lopsided in the American's favor. The policy of the American government toward China has been to coopt them by rewarding good behaviour (in this case that means not being to militant with Taiwan, maintaining serviceable relations with Japan, though those have recently soured). One American foreign policy expert made the point that while China is rising economically they are nowhere near ready to threaten the US militarily,but they can reduce US influence in Asia. The analogy that is appropriate by means of contrast would be the situation of the late 19th century when Germany industrialized so rapidly that they overtook the world's only superpower of that time,England, both economically and miliatarily. That devlopment led to World War I more than any other factor. Your high school history textbook probably said it was caused because an archduke was offed by a Serbian nationalist, but that was merely the pretense. That was a interneccine struggle between Austria-Hungary and those ethnicities it ruled through force and coercion. Anyway the real conflict was that Germany was in a position to challenge England for world hegemony and sought to do so. China is not yet that far along and US policy is to see that it never gets there. This, more than anything else, probably drove America's recent nuclear deal with India which upset Pakistan and no doubt seemed like the usual American double standard to Iran and others. You don't need software to search all foreign press to guess that.