Asia: The New U.S. Strategy: Bush wants to redraw the region's security map. How will Asia respond?

To leaders in Beijing - and defense analysts around the Pacific Rim - it seems America is trying to coordinate a regionwide effort to check China's growing military might. That is the diplomatic buzz in the wake of mid-May visits by Deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage to Tokyo, Seoul, and New Delhi. At the same time, Paul D. Wolfowitz, the hawkish new Deputy Defense Secretary, made a swing through Europe that included a visit to Russia, the other major power on China's border. The Chinese, understandably, are getting nervous - and are even talking about a renewed arms race. Compared with the way Bush envoys were greeted elsewhere, a nine-person delegation led by Assistant Secretary of State James A. Kelly got a frosty reception at the Chinese Foreign Ministry on May 15. Kelly's explanation of the U.S. missile defense plan over tea and canned coconut drinks to a Chinese team seated around an oblong table went nowhere.