if china tried to put a naval base in colombia or establish one on the north shore of the dominican republic, a country very close to the coast line of the united states, would beijing be justified at all in seeing this as provocative? >> well, i think that any country has the right to invite another country to be present, have rotational troops on its soil. if countries around china are more and more nervous about china's intentions and activities and invite in the united states, want to see more u.s. presence, more military exercises with the u.s. and that makes china nervous, i think the goal of the united states and these countries is to persuade china to engage in more of a rules-based way with other countries rather than throwing its weight around. and so at the end of the day that should be the objective of the united states and i think is. we want china to engage with these countries in a way where china respects their interests. at present, china is testing other countries and wants its interest respected. but it's a two-way street. china has been behaving pretty aggressively, and is trying to see some territory that the philippines sees as b