America finds there is more to the world than China

Contrast this with the Indo-Pacific. There, the US is, and has been for a while, well staffed. Malaysia is one of the few regional powers where there isn't a permanent ambassador. In that zone of competition between America and China, Washington doesn't dither. The main economic and military challenger to the US is also its all-consuming focus. This monomania is untenable, as events in the Middle East are proving. Having taken China too lightly for decades, America's elites have overcorrected lately. There has been a mental "pivot to Asia". It made all the sense in the world at the time….