Piotr Opali?ski In the backdrop of the two-day summit between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing, it’s worth examining is at all Southeast Asia figured in their discussions. The region remains one of the principal theatres of strategic rivalry between the United States and China. This competition extends beyond diplomacy into the military, economic and infrastructure domains. The American presence in the region rests on a network of alliances and partnerships with countries such as the Philippines, Japan, South Korea and Australia, alongside an expanded military footprint across the Indo-Pacific. China, meanwhile, has steadily consolidated...