Rising China
China recently surpassed Japan as the world's second largest economy, a position Japan had held for six decades. Michael Armacost–former U.S. ambassador to Japan and former under secretary of state for political affairs–blogs: "The presumption is that China's immense population and rapid growth will inevitably whet its appetite for power, for glory, for prestige, and for dominion." Not necessarily, he concludes, but cautions the U.S. to view China's rise as a wake-up call. Also in this week's blog: our Scott Snyder writes on regional security impacts of the Cheonan Incident, and our Mongolia office's Josh Friedman assesses the merits of holding a Cabinet meeting in the middle of a scorching Gobi Desert. Read all this and more on our blog.
