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The article examines the foreign trade policies of the administration of U.S. President Bill Clinton toward East Asia as of September 1995. The Administration can claim the rare achievement of imperiling relations with Japan and China simultaneously and this is the result of a set of initiatives that make its Bosnia policy look like high strategy. The president renewed China's Most Favored Nation (MFN) status by Executive order in June 1993, but, in response to pressure from Congress, worded the Order so as to make MFN renewal contingent on specific human-rights improvements. In May 1994 Clinton renewed MFN unconditionally, announcing a policy of constructive engagement. The MFN decision was largely a response rather than part of a coherent China strategy.

Focuses on political developments in East Asia to highlight the differences in handling of foreign relations by Great Britain and the U.S. Significance of the information on the formation of the Malaysian Federation; Ethnic and racial factors taken into consideration while setting up the federation; Significance of Indonesia's acceptance of the Bunker plan for the transfer of Dutch New Guinea to Indonesia after a short interlude of nominal United Nations suzerainty.