This is what happens when America leaves Asia.
Yesterday, a friend of mine came to me and said he’d heard about China’s seizure of a U.S. Navy drone in the South China Sea. I was delighted that he was interested in this news. I told him it was a big event—bigger than it first appeared. It was qualitatively different from all the other encounters to date between China and the United States in the South China Sea. And I tried to explain to him the significance of the event, how it would affect all of us, and why.
About ten minutes into my talk, my friend got impatient and said, “I have to run in ten minutes. I appreciate all the details you just told me, but I’m not a South China Sea expert; I won’t remember most of them. I probably don’t need to. I just want to understand: what is the situation, what is the problem, and what do you think is the best solution?”