US Presidential Hopefuls Quiet on Asian Policy

Of the six leading Republican and Democratic contenders for presidential nominations, only Republican Senator John McCain and Democratic former senator John Edwards have produced comprehensive policies toward Asia that each would implement if elected to the White House.

Two more, Democratic Senator Hillary Clinton and former Republican governor of Massachusetts Mitt Romney have sketched out proposals for approaches to Asia. The last two, former New York mayor, Rudy Giuliani, a Republican, and Democratic Senator Barack Obama have said little about this issue.

McCain's plan, laid out in an essay in the journal Foreign Affairs, is perhaps the most extensive.

"Power in the world today is moving east; the Asia-Pacific region is on the rise," he wrote.

Moreover, "The linch pin to the region's promise is continued American engagement," he said.

"I welcome Japan's international leadership and emergence as a global power," he said.

He supports Japan's effort to become a permanent member of the UN Security Council alongside Britain, China, France, Russia and the US. He would encourage a partnership with India, a stronger alliance with Australia and would rebuild frayed relations with South Korea.

McCain, however, is cautious about China: "Dealing with a rising China will be a central challenge for the next American president."

On the sensitive issue of Taiwan, McCain says: "When China threatens democratic Taiwan with a massive arsenal of missiles and warlike rhetoric, the United States must take note."

The senator would seek an "elevated partnership" with Indonesia and would "expand defense cooperation" with Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Vietnam. That last is intriguing since McCain, a naval aviator shot down over North Vietnam during the Vietnam war, spent five-and-a-half years as a prisoner of war and was brutally beaten many times.

Edwards is not so detailed as McCain but more sweeping than opponents within his party. Overall, he says on a Web site, the US must "strive to maintain our strong partnerships with longtime allies, including the United Kingdom, Japan and the transforming European Union."

Edwards says US relations with China are "delicate."

"China's influence and importance will only continue to grow" and asserts that "our overarching goal must be to get China to commit to the rules that govern the conduct of nations," he said.

On India, Edwards said: "The United States and India are natural allies, and the US-Indian strategic partnership will help shape the twenty-first century."

He advocates reforming the UN to include a place for India on the Security Council.

Clinton has stirred discussion in Asia with a declaration about China that is at odds with the views of many other US politicians.

"Our relationship with China," she said in an essay in Foreign Affairs, "will be the most important bilateral relationship in the world in this century."

In contrast, her husband, former US president Bill Clinton, reflected a widespread view among both Democrats and Republicans.

While he was in the White House, he said: "The United States has no more important bilateral relationship than our relationship with Japan. We are strategic allies and our futures are bound up together."

Moreover, Senator Clinton said: "We must persuade China to join global institutions."

Yet the CIA's World Factbook reports that China, one of five nations with a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, belongs to about 70 international organizations. (In comparison, the US belongs to about 80.)

In another surprising statement, Senator Clinton writes that Kuala Lumpur was one of the "springboards for 9/11," the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.

Yet most reports say Osama bin Laden, a Saudi, and his al-Qaeda followers, also Saudis, as having conspired in Afghanistan to hijack the airliners that crashed into the twin towers in New York and the Pentagon in Washington.

Romney sees Asian nations, particularly China, as economic competitors rather than as security partners or adversaries.

"China and the rest of Asia," he says on his Web site, "are on the move economically and technologically."

He lumps all Asians together despite differences in political systems, economic development and social order, saying: "They are a family oriented, educated, hard-working, and mercantile people."

"If America acts boldly and swiftly, the emergence of Asia will be an opportunity," he said.

Romney's opponents might agree with his concluding thought: "If America fails to act, we will be eclipsed."

By Richard Halloran. He is a writer based in Hawaii.