US-Pacific Relations: Pacific-Minded

In early March, United States (US )Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made unusually direct comments to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee about America’s position in the Pacific. “Let’s just talk straight realpolitik. We are in competition with China,” she said. All over the Pacific, China is trying to “come in behind us and come in under us.” And it is working. China’s influence in the island nations of the Pacific is growing dramatically, and the repercussions are global.