Can the U.S. take on China in Asia?

Even Cafta is ruffling some Asean feathers. Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines have all expressed reservations about the agreement, fearing that tariff cuts on Chinese products would leave their domestic products defenseless. Jakarta is even seeking to re-negotiate the deal.

Concerns about Beijing have also spilled into the military realm with a regional arms race intensifying in recent months, fuelled as much by intra-Asean tensions as the perceived threat of a rising China.

Both Vietnam and Myanmar have reportedly agreed to big weapons deals with Russia in recent months, despite strong sales pitch from a China eager to raise its profile as an arms exporter. While Beijing has had some success selling weapons to African and South American states, its reach has been limited in South-east Asia.

Myanmar inked a US$600 million deal to buy 20 Russian MiG-29 fighter planes, just a fortnight after Chinese Vice-President Xi Jinping visited Naypyidaw last December, a move interpreted as the junta's desire to cut its reliance on China.

In many ways, the current unease in the region is a reflection of centuries of Sinophobia, a hangover from the days when an imperial power saw the region as its backyard.

While proximity to China has brought economic benefits to South-east Asia, China's smaller southern neighbors have also been at the receiving end of its wrath on more than one occasion.

Older Vietnamese will not forget the quarter of a million troops that the late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping sent in 1979 “to teach Vietnam a lesson” for invading Cambodia. And even till today, Vietnamese celebrate the annual Dong Da Festival, which marks a Vietnamese emperor's defeat of the Chinese Qing invaders in 1789.

The rest of Asean needs little reminder that the CCP was once supportive of local communist insurgencies in almost all the countries in the region.

All this history has led Asean to seek a balance of power in the region — the biggest factor in America's favor as it seeks a return to the region: Washington is very much welcomed by the hosts.

This message was made crystal clear by Singapore's Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew last year, when he said in Washington: “The size of China makes it impossible for the rest of Asia, including Japan and India, to match it in weight and capacity in about 20 to 30 years. So we need America to strike a balance.”

The welcome mat has been laid out. The Obama administration has indicated that it wants to play a role in Southeast Asia. But with two wars to fight and a groaning economy to tend, one wonders if it would be a case of a willing heart but tiring flesh for the Americans.

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