The discussion revolves around the role that should be played in the international arena by the United States of America, a superpower that appears to have passed its influential peak. The US has hopes pinned on Asia as a new lifeline to global economic dynamism, but China, the dominant force on the continent, is an unavoidable obstacle to US "hegemony". What is China seeking to achieve? How might the US and Japan cooperate in response? And what will become of international security?
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The P4 laboratory, on the campus of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, in Wuhan, in China's central Hubei province. (Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images)