Kamala Harris’s south-east Asia trip reveals limits of US strategy

Analysis: With little sign of big ideas or ambitious proposals, some analysts say vice-president's trip reflects how little the administration is investing in the region

In October 2013, as the former US president Barack Obama had to cancel his four-nation tour of south-east Asia due to the congressional impasse at home, China's president Xi Jinping, instead, made the news headlines across the region.

On that trip to Indonesia, Xi proposed to set up an Asian infrastructure investment bank to support the region's connectivity". He and his Indonesian counterpart, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, also announced $32bn of trade and investment deals. Then in Malaysia, Xi and the prime minister, Najib Razak, vowed to strengthen military ties and triple bilateral trade to $160bn by 2017.