U.S. President Obama opened his appearance at the G20 summit of world leaders in Australia with a speech that had to make Beijing think, reports GHN based on CNN.
The United States is a big part of the power balance in Asia and plans to throw more of its weight onto the scale, the president told a crowd at the University of Queensland in Brisbane.
"We will continue to deepen our engagement using every element of American power -- diplomacy, military, economic, development, the power of our values and ideals," he said.
And the United States will band together with nations in the region. It will work toward giving them more heft -- so that big nations do not "bully the small," Obama said.
That has been a common phrase used in reference to territorial disputes between China and other southeast Asian nations.
China's relations with Vietnam and the Philippines have soured over maritime tensions. But China's bitterest dispute has been with Japan.
Military boats and planes have hummed around small, uninhabited islands that both countries lay claim to,heating up rhetoric and defense posturing between Tokyo and Beijing.
In many of the disputes, access to underwater oil has been at stake.
Obama singled out China, saying it would have to play by the same rules as its neighbors.
"We'll support ASEAN's effort to reach a code of conduct with China that reinforces international law in the South China Sea," he said.
ASEAN stands for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and it is made up of 10 smaller Southeast Asian nations, most of them developing economies.
China, Japan and South Korea are not members.