When big powers pivot, the little states roll: Southeast Asia between China and Japan

The announcement by President Xi Jinping of the “Asia-Pacific Dream” at the start of the APEC summit in Beijing has been seen by many as China’s latest attempt to respond to the Obama administration’s “pivot.” Unlike the “Pacific Dream” used by Secretary of State John Kerry to describe Washington’s rebalancing, Xi puts China at the center, using its growing power to promote “new initiatives and visions for enhancing regional cooperation” in the context of a “community of shared destiny” held together by “silk roads” fanning out on land and sea to all parts of the globe.