China’s diplomatic gambit heralds new ‘Battle for the Pacific’

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by Andrew Beatty Agence France-Presse SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — A 10-day South Pacific island-hopping tour by China’s top diplomat focused world attention on a usually overlooked region, opened a new front in Beijing’s quest for global influence and challenged decades of Western primacy. On the face of it, Wang Yi’s trip was a failure. His centerpiece proposal — a regional pact to turbocharge China’s role in Pacific island security — was leaked to the press […]