CHINA US Focus - Perspectives shaping the world's most important bilateral relationship

Beijing and Moscow are trying their hands at attraction, and failing – miserably, writes Joseph S. Nye.

As tensions on the Korean Peninsula continue to heighten, Beijing has taken a harder stance against the actions of Pyongyang. Richard Weitz discusses common security interests between the United States and China in East Asia.

President Xi Jinping’s state visit to Russia, Tanzania, South Africa and the Republic of Congo, and his participation in the fifth BRICS summit in Durban has sparked speculation over China’s diplomatic inclinations among some circles overseas.

Even though the Western media attacks it as a form of Chinese neo-colonialism, the China-Africa relationship has in the past decade moved steadily and rapidly forward despite interferences.

As the large emerging economies met at this year’s BRICS Summit in Durban, South Africa, they focused on proposals for a BRICS development bank and the future of the global economy in an attempt to counter reduced growth prospects.

As US and NATO forces prepare to withdraw from Afghanistan in 2014, Washington must carefully examine the strategic power vacuum that will be left in its void. Given China’s increasing influence in Central Asia, US policy makers must be cognizant of its recommendations for managing the region and enlist China’s assistance to implement them.