Obama in China's 'backyard'

Following his re-election, the first overseas trip US President Barack Obama made was to Southeast Asia, where he chalked up three firsts: became the first sitting American president to visit Myanmar (formerly known as Burma), Cambodia, and also the first to attend the East Asia Summit. His trip also included a stop in Thailand, America's longtime ally.

Why was he in China's "backyard"? According to the Washington Post, one of his advisors was quoted as saying that a renewed focus on Asia will be "a critical part of the president's second term and ultimately his foreign policy legacy."

During his second term in office, a US president does not have to worry about re-election and can therefore concentrate on doing what he has really wanted to do in order to ensure his legacy.

Obama's major strategic shift has been to exit Iraq and Afghanistan and refocus US efforts on the Asia-Pacific. His administration is using the Asia trip as another step in its "pivot to Asia" aimed at strengthening US strategic, security and economic ties in the region and counterbalance China's growing influence.

He traveled with his secretary of state Hillary Clinton, who is set to retire as soon as her successor is found. Their first stop was Bangkok, where they met with Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and paid a courtesy call to the hospitalized King Bhumibol Adulyadlej of Thailand.

As the American president's trip took him out of Washington just as negotiations over the looming "fiscal cliff" heat up, he needed to pray for good luck. So they also visited the Royal Monastery where he hoped to take whatever good vibes the head Buddhist monk could give him.

Prior the president's arrival, US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta arrived in Bangkok to sign a "Joint Vision Statement" for Thai-US defense alliance with his counterpart ACM Sukumpol Suwanatad, the Thai defense minister.

Obama and Clinton also traveled to Burma (the administration still refuses to use the country's new name Myanmar) for six hours. This segment was billed as the political centerpiece of the president's Asia trip, perhaps due to Burma's strategic location bordering China. Visiting Yangon, Obama and Clinton met with President Thein Sein, who flew from the regional meeting of ASEAN in Cambodia to meet them. They also visited with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, and Obama gave a speech at the University of Yangon.

The Obama administration has bet heavily on Burma, relaxing some sanctions after Clinton visited the country and appointing Ambassador Derek Mitchell to Yangon. On this trip, Obama announced that US will establish a US Agency for International Development (USAID) mission in Burma and offer the country up to US$170 million in new foreign aid over the next two years.

In Phnom Penh, Obama said he was there to attend the East Asia summit, not to interact with the host. He did not apologize for American warplanes' carpet bombing of Cambodia four decades ago that killed half a million Cambodians. But four days before he arrived there, his defense secretary Panetta was in Phnom Penh to reaffirm the United States' military ties with the government of Prime Minister Hun Sen.

While competing with China for friends in Southeast Asia, Obama was selling his Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) program, a trade bloc that excludes China. There were few eager takers. Thailand, for instance, is worried that jointing the TPP might hurt, instead of help its economy.

On the other hand, ten Southeast Asian nations announced in Phnom Penh that they would begin negotiating a sweeping trade pact creating the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership that would include China and five of the region's other major trading partners but not the United States. The new bloc would start in 2015 and would cover half of the world's population.

In trade competition, the United States is at a disadvantage, as every country in the region except the Philippines does more business with China than with the US.

So, for America's own interests in the long run, it would be better for the US to work out a new-type big power relationship with China, as was suggested by China's new leader Xi Jinping.

Zhao Jinglun was a Nieman Fellow, class of 1981. He is the chief opinions writer for The Asian-American Times (NYC) and a columnist for the Hong Kong Economic Journal.