FILE - In this Aug. 6, 2012 file photo, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks in Johannesburg, South Africa. Clinton will try to reassert American interests in the Asia-Pacific region in the face of China's growing influence as she kicks off a six-nation trip to the region. She left Washington Thursday on a trip that will keep her half a world away from U.S. politics at the height of the presidential conventions. But her travels will put her at the center of rising tensions over territorial disputes involving China and its neighbors in the South China Sea. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File, Pool)