The Customer is Always Right

I've long said that our friends in Asia worried about China need the assurance that we will be there to help them if they resist their large neighbor. Our "pivot" to Asia and the Pacific is more marketing than a real shift of significant forces to the region, but it is at least working to bolster friends and allies in their belief that we are a Pacific power who can help them. Otherwise, they wouldn't be buying arms to resist China.

We'll be selling lots of the weapons they will be buying:

U.S. sales of warplanes, anti-missile systems and other costly weapons to China's and North Korea's neighbors appear set for significant growth amid regional security jitters.

Strengthening treaty allies and other security partners is central to the White House's "pivot" toward a Pacific region jolted by maritime territorial disputes in China's case, and missile and nuclear programs, in North Korea's.

The pivot "will result in growing opportunities for our industry to help equip our friends," said Fred Downey, vice president for national security at the Aerospace Industries Association, a trade group that includes top U.S. arms makers.

China is helping out with their embrace of hard power to bully neighbors. Nobody knows what dormant or "settled" territorial claim will be restored to life by Peking.

I worry that China will try to counter impulses for political reform by whipping up nationalist anger against some unlucky target nation that we'll need to help.