Stability and progress require unity

The US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta recently announced that the United States will accelerate its strategic shift eastward, saying 60 percent of US warships will be deployed to the Asia-Pacific region before 2020. He stressed that such a move is not to contain China.

But despite Panetta denying that the United States is trying to contain China, a series of activities taken by the US over the past year, from its increased military presence in the Asia-Pacific region to its frequent joint military exercises with its allies that posited China as the enemy, mean it will be difficult to convince people that Washington is not targeting China.

Plagued by a lackluster economic recovery, a lingering debt crisis and a soaring unemployment rate, the US should focus on concentrating its financial resources on how to help extricate the world and itself from the economic slowdown, promote economic development, expand employment and improve people's welfare.