Xiang, Lanxin

Abstract
The Obama administration seems to have toned down its rhetoric on Asia-Pacific security, abandoning the fancy but problematic phrase ‘pivot towards Asia’ and replacing it with the more prosaic ‘rebalancing’. This does not mean the content of US policy is very different. On the contrary, the Obama administration continues its military build-up in the region, aiming at a military posture that can only be described as ‘absolute superiority’. Over the past two years, Washington has put together a comprehensive ‘containment’ package in Asia that includes a new military doctrine of air–sea battle; launched a game-changing economic project called the Trans-Pacific Partnership; initiated the ‘rotation’ of US marines in Australia; and stationed coastal battleships in Singapore. More alarmingly, the United States is making clear attempts to re-establish a naval presence in Subic Bay in the Philippines, and in the coveted Cam Ranh Bay in Vietnam. Both were key US naval bases during the Cold War.
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