DEAR COLLEAGUES: Official U.S. interest in China for political, economic and strategic reasons has been part of our foreign policy for decades. Most Americans, on the other hand, when they have thought about issues outside our borders, have tended to focus on events in Europe and more recently the Middle East. But no more. The latest Pew Research poll shows that for the first time Asia has now overtaken Europe, by a wide margin, as the area of the world most important to Americans.