From Senator Lugar’s website:
On February 15, 2011, Senator Dick Lugar released a report prepared by the minority staff of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee. In his letter accompanying the report, Senator Lugar wrote:
Official U.S. interest in China for political, economic and strategic reasons has been part of our foreign policy for decades. Most Americans, on the other hand, when they have
thought about issues outside our borders, have tended to focus on events in Europe and more recently the Middle East. But no more.
The latest Pew Research poll shows that for the first time Asia has now overtaken Europe, by a wide margin, as the area of the world most important to Americans. This is not that surprising given the extent to which the United States and China are currently entwined in our most complex bilateral relationship. While we are increasingly dependent on each other for credit and markets, we nonetheless eye each other warily as each country copes with the economic challenges confronting it. At the same time, U.S. global strategic dominance will face pressures from China’s growing military expenditures and nascent but rising nationalist sentiment. Greater focus on China is necessary not only to enhance our national and economic security but to improve our ability to compete with China in markets overseas as well.
Another U.S. Deficit -China and America- Public Diplomacy in the Age of the Internet