US feels drift in power to the East

A PICTURE spoke volumes about America’s loss of global prestige and influence due to the shutdown of its government in a partisan stand-off over the federal budget and debt.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin beamed front and centre in the family photograph of Asian leaders at last week’s Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation summit in Bali.

US secretary of state John Kerry, standing in for an absent President Barack Obama, detained at home by protracted budget talks, waved forlornly from the edge, about as far from the centre as possible without falling off the platform.