Why Southeast Asia is turning from US to China – Tim Shorrock

From Asia Times Online:

The United States is rapidly losing its influence in the Southeast Asia region to China, thanks to an overly narrow focus on terrorism and a propensity to place bilateral ties above multilateral relationships, according to US and Chinese analysts. “China makes a point of dealing with Southeast Asia as a region and has a very aggressive ASEAN policy,” said Catharin Dalpino, an Asia specialist at Georgetown University who served in the Clinton administration. “This also helps its bilateral relationships with Southeast Asia quite a lot.”