In May, the 10-country Association of Southeast Asian Nations, known as ASEAN, will meet the six Middle Eastern nations that make up the Gulf Cooperation Council. The summit’s host, Malaysia, has invited China to attend. China is also poised to update its own free-trade agreement with ASEAN, which includes Cambodia, the Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam….
In famine-stricken Sudan, soup kitchens that feed hundreds of thousands of civilians trapped in a war zone have shut down. In Thailand, war refugees with life-threatening diseases have been turned away by hospitals and carted off on makeshift stretchers. In Ukraine, residents on the frontline of the war with Russia may be going without firewood…
President Biden and his aides came into office with deep experience in trans-Atlantic affairs. But over four years, they focused too on the Pacific, where China strains to be the dominant player. Their main effort: building up alliances to counter China. President-elect Donald J. Trump has already signaled a different approach to China. He invited…