China is today home to 1.3 billion people, an economic powerhouse, and one of the big powers in Asia. While these facts seem to make them an obvious adversary to American dominance, our economic interdependence makes the situation much more complicated.
World affairs are increasingly focused on Asian issues like Korea, Taiwan, and the South China Sea as well as China's growing importance in the world economy. Recent terse exchanges and open fear-mongering seen on both sides, however, seem to show a lack of quick, clear communication or willingness to go wage a costly war for our ideologies.
There needs to be more signs of our significant and weighty relationship with China, starting with the highest offices, as we did with the Soviets in 1963...