US President Barack Obama applauds with Southeast Asian leaders, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (left), Philippines President Benigno Aquino (2nd from the left) and Brunei Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah (right), at the East Asia Summit on Indonesia's resort island of Bali on Nov. 19, 2011. (Romeo Gacad/AFP/Getty Images)

BOSTON — US President Barack Obama completed a stunningly successful eight-day trip to the Asia-Pacific region last week, confounding China and strengthening America’s commitment to more half the world’s population.
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With a weak economy, high unemployment and a dysfunctional Congress dimming the prospects of transformative success on the homefront, Obama seems to have decided to focus on America’s long list of vital national security and economic interests around the world. The Asia trip was the boldest of his presidency.
Starting in Hawaii, where he hosted the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum on free trade, the president flew on to Australia where he announced that the United States would base 2,500 Marines in the city of Darwin on Australia’s north coast. This highly symbolic upgrading of the historically close ties between America and Australia was a clear signal to China that the US military retains a major commitment to the region.
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Obama moved on to the Indonesian island of Bali for the annual meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the surprise announcement of a historic re-opening in ties to Burma (officially called Myanmar). Hillary Clinton will become the first US secretary of state to visit Burma since before the onset of the Vietnam War.
Simultaneously, Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma’s revered opposition leader, announced that she would rejoin the country’s political system. The confluence of these developments further telegraphed America’s more assertive approach in Asia as well as the administration’s new determination to compete hard with China for influence in the region.