Washington's persistence in pushing its pivot to Asia strategy reveals the fragility of US power and its Cold War mentality

Prior to his departure from the recently concluded G20 Summit in Australia, US President Barack Obama, in a speech at the University of Queensland on Saturday, stressed that the Asia-Pacific region would remain a "fundamental focus" of US foreign policy and pledged to deepen the US' military engagement in the region. Obama's words, confirming Washington's strategic shift toward the Asia-Pacific in a bid to consolidate its global leadership, revealed the fragility rather than the might of US dominance.

For starters, by pledging to enrich its military ties and trade relations with Asian countries, the Obama administration sought to allay concerns among its allies about the US commitment to the Asia-Pacific region. Washington's over-emphasis on strengthening its regional military alliances, however, exposes its real attempt to cut off Asia-Pacific integration, in which Asian countries have been the major driver.

Obama's pledge to boost "maritime security capacity building" in the Pacific Ocean further demonstrates Washington's growing sense of unease over China's growing regional influence.

Obama further prioritized the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement in his pivot to Asia strategy. The TPP, covering only 12 trans-Pacific members among which Washington and Tokyo are still haggling over agricultural tariffs, does not even convince the US Congress. Worse still, in hoping to maintain US leadership in the region it deliberately excludes China, a major driver of the Asian economy.

Hence, instead of boosting the regional economy in the Asia-Pacific in the long run as designed, the US-led TPP actually hampers freer trade and economic integration by promoting parochial exclusion. That explains why China would choose to cooperate with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in a Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership and why it pushed for the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific during this month's 2014 APEC meeting in Beijing.