US in a 'Eurasia' pickle
Current US China policy seems to be "Who Needs Russia? We've got ... The Philippines!"
Unless President Barack Obama has absolute faith in the ability of the United States and the Asian democracies to restrain China, there would seem to be some disturbing developments for the US in Asia.
First of all, the People's Republic of China parked its HYSY 981 oil rig in waters that Vietnam claims as its exclusive economic zone, triggering a heated response from Vietnam, anguished writhing from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and a stern "don't engage in provocations" finger-wag from the United States.
The PRC, however, is not yielding, implicitly highlighting the fact that the United States is failing in its self-proclaimed mission to assure peace and prosperity in the South China Sea (as I pointed out in a previous piece, the PRC's oil-rig shenanigans accentuate the essential sovereignty/EEZ character of disputes between China and its South China Sea neighbors, and undercut the "freedom of navigation" hobbyhorse that the US has crafted to ride to the rescue of the SCS).
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/CHIN-01-210514.html