If the Noda government relinquishes its claim to the joint exploration of the seabed around the Senkakus, hesitates to modernize Japan's military and cuts back on missile defense activities, a conservative backlash could emerge, heightened by perceived regional impressions that Japan is weakening relative to China.

We are not in a cold war with China. That is too simple a metaphor to describe the state of Sino-American relations.

The Chen Guangcheng saga gets stranger and stranger, but also is becoming a major diplomatic embarrassment for the Obama administration.

Turkish-Israeli relations all but collapsed earlier this year. Yet the current downturn in relations is made even worse by Mr. Erdogan's decision to reach out to China.

Scholars and analysts can help policymakers advance U.S. interests in Asia by assessing the dynamic Sino-U.S. balance of power in the region.

The past two weeks of turmoil and drama in Sino-American affairs may well be the new normal, not an exception to an otherwise placid bilateral relationship. While Friday brought news of a possible deal allowing dissident Chen Guangcheng to leave China to study in America, that deal is no more certain than the earlier, failed deal, announced just days before

What matters for China is not whether Westerners believe the system is cracking. The question is: How do the Chinese view their own system?

Chinese vice president Xi Jinping is back in China, his U.S. visit having gone off without a hitch. Both sides are claiming that the trip was a smashing success and are asserting that the Sino-American relationship is strong and mature.