. >> what about donnellan? >> donnellan is focused on china. >> do they like that or don't like that? the point man for the obama administration, who made several trips over there is gone from this administration. the guy they have been dealing with, gone. >> true. the focus on asia gone. it was when kerry was with the chinese foreign minister in geneva working via renny an issue. it was more of a priority for us. >> biden got two hours with xi jinping. >> the chinese is happy with where they are now. they want to be involved in a multilateral trading services agreement. the chinese strategy here is not a bad relationship with the u.s.. the chinese strategy is to drive a wedge between the u.s. and japan. i think that they have been somewhat successful. i think hillary clinton was still secretary of state -- >> they would have reason to respond? >> the japanese would've taken an aligned position. >> are they testing is? >> they are testing japan a bit. they are testing us a little. they want to see this flexibil

i fully agree that tom donnellan was for a while point man for the saudi's. the system has not yet been fixed so that there is somebody who then review of the key intermediary. that's important because we do want to influence them. they obviously have a lot of influence and, for example, syria. they have an active syria policy. they have a very active bothering policy. we want to maximize their influence are probably not doing it right now. >> to respond to the u.s. having a knack to roll in. the saudi direction, i completely agree with the instinct, but the devil is in the details of how you implement that at this time of change in the middle east. quite clearly in the first year of the earth uprisings, 2011 at 22012, the saudi spotlight they were on their heels. they lost partners. they thought the united states and president obama had thrown the park under the bus because of the lack of the economic and democratic reforms. they play a construct of role, a curious thing than a monarchy is actually playing a role in sort of mediating a pathway towards what i

united states appears to want to rebalance the region as the former national security advisor thomas donnellan said, basically rebalance and the saudi and iranian top of each other. order the saudis have advocates saying our problem is not rebalance. our problem is that the islamic republic of iran. that's the issue. in some ways, if elected area come in syria might the more accurate picture of what's happening around the region, what the ukrainians are fighting for and how they are fighting. if i could just get your thoughts on syria. >> from the saudi point of view, is clicking an ella uses the phrase the shia crescent. you americans handed them iraq and they still have that view. you're not doing anything about hezbollah and lebanon. now you've got hezbollah troops and iranian i rgc groups and expeditionary force in syria fighting. this is a matter of the shia becoming the dominant force in the region. what are you americans doing? you don't even recognize it. i think that's the fundamental saudi view. they are fighting to win. you guys don't even seem to recognize this is a fight with the