U.S., Asean to Push Back Against China

[Valin]

WSJ:

JEREMY PAGE, PATRICK BARTA and JAY SOLOMON
9/22/10

The U.S. and its Asian allies are starting to push back at China's growing assertiveness in the region, strengthening security ties and taking more robust positions in territorial disputes in the East and South China seas.

The newest evidence of the resistance is set to come on Friday when President Barack Obama is due to discuss the South China Sea—almost all of which is claimed by China—during a lunch in New York with leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or Asean. The meeting will take place on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York and will follow Mr. Obama's meeting Thursday with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao.

Ahead of the meeting, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong told The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday he plans to tell Mr. Obama that the U.S. needs to maintain an activist presence in Asia to show it is "here to stay" as a power in the Pacific.

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