With China's rise, the US, though still a huge military, diplomatic and economic presence in the Asia Pacific region, cannot safeguard its interests as forthrightly as it once could, said an article in The Financial Times on July 27, 2011.

According to the article, the US is seeking to re-establish a stronger presence in the Asia Pacific region, a part of the world relatively neglected by the former administration of George W. Bush. The US wants the region's trade and diplomatic relations to be run along international - the cynic might say American - lines.

But times have changed, said the article, as business is increasingly conducted on China's terms. Actually, in China, Washington often seems "powerless to prevent practices it considers unfair". It cited the example that Beijing reacted angrily when Hillary Clinton told an Asian security gathering in Vietnam last year that the US was happy to mediate in disputes between China and its neighbors in the South China Sea.

If it hopes to maintain influence, the article concluded, the US must indeed remain engaged in regional trade issues. But it will be more difficult to get China to abide by its rules. "Clearly, Washington's ability to do as it pleases in China's neck of the woods is not what it was."