Barack Obama and John McCain, the US presidential candidates, should understand better than most why Asia is important to any incumbent of the White House. Unlike former president George H. W. Bush, neither has been an envoy to Beijing, but each has at least spent time on Asian soil, Mr Obama as a schoolboy in Indonesia and Mr McCain as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.

Those experiences will stand them in good stead. As home to more than half the world’s people and a large share of its conflicts, Asia has a way of mugging unwary US presidents.