FILE - In this Aug. 21, 2011, file photo. U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, center, talks to students as Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping, second from right, watches during their visit to the Qingchengshan High School in Dujiangyan in southwestern China's Sichuan province, Sunday, Aug. 21, 2011. It’s up to Biden to show the U.S. effort to realign its gaze to the East hasn’t fizzled out. When he arrives Dec. 2, 2013, in Tokyo on a weeklong trip to Asia, he’ll step into a region that’s carefully watching to see how committed he and President Barack Obama are to increasing America’s influence in Asia, as a hedge against China and its increasing assertiveness. Huddling with foreign leaders in Japan, China and South Korea, Biden will seek to show that despite focusing intensely on Mideast flare-ups and a host of domestic distractions, the U.S. still intends to be a Pacific power. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan, Pool)