From panda huggers to panda sluggers.

I had alerted Facebook friends about an article by prominent American China-watcher David Shambaugh. It appeared in ST (June 12) but the original piece was in the South China Morning Post:

In a fundamental shift, China and the US are now engaged in all-out competition

David Shambaugh says worryingly, an across-the-board contest now dominates US-China relations

http://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1819980/fundamental-shift-china-and-us-are-now-engaged-all-out

  

The headline in ST's version was less stark and it gave little away, in comparison...

Sino-US relations: Divorce is not an option

http://www.straitstimes.com/news/opinion/more-opinion-stories/story/sino-us-relations-divorce-not-option-20150612

This extract below highlights the US academic's concerns about the Sino-US strategic dynamic:

Professor Shambaugh, incidentally, recently suggested that China was at risk of "cracking up" -- which led a number of observers, like the one below, to challenge that view:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/stephenharner/2015/03/10/why-david-shambaughs-coming-chinese-crackup-case-is-wrong/

But the article that I found most revealing was this one in The Japan Times:

The conversion of America’s China doves into hawks

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2015/05/20/commentary/world-commentary/conversion-americas-china-doves-hawks/#.VXsAnPmqqkp

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Finally, I really like this tell-it-as-it-is cartoon, also from The Japan Times...