Asia- Pacific economic meeting:

APEC Summit sees US-China reversal in fortunes

SINGAPORE: In the 20 years since its launch, the Asia-Pacific's top economic grouping has witnessed a stunning realignment with China on the march and the United States mired in crisis.

President Barack Obama heads to Singapore for this week's annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting with the US recovery painfully slow, the dollar on shaky ground, and US diplomatic standing in need of repair. Unlike the United States, China was not a founding member of APEC when the club was launched in November 1989 - five months after the violent Tiananmen Square crackdown made the Asian country an international pariah.

When it did join in 1991, China was still in transition from a centrally planned economy, but is now striking an increasingly confident pose on the world stage.

Poised to become the world's second-largest economy, it is exerting its influence everywhere - financing America's debt, becoming a top buyer of natural resources, and making its voice heard on major diplomatic issues.

But despite its reduced circumstances, the United States has a long history of leadership in the region and is still the major marketplace for goods produced by export-dependent Asia-Pacific nations.

"We believe America plays an indispensable role in Asia in many fields - economic, political, strategic, security," the APEC host, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, said last week. "We've been talking about a multipolar world, but de facto the US is the most powerful nation in the world and will be so for some time to come," said Lee, who will welcome 20 other leaders for the November 14-15 APEC Summit.

Lee's comments came amid debate about the US role in various proposed free-trade zones and economic communities, including a Japanese-sponsored East Asian Community in which Washington's involvement is unclear

.Monday, AFP