[joegrundman]

yes, of course it's hypocritical, but in this sort of game, that doesn't matter.

To illustrate what I mean:

If the US parks its butt on China's doorstep and defines any attempt by China to remove the US butt from that position as "aggression" - then that is what it is.

It is a dangerous time for China right now. While China may be the rising power, and the US the declining power, it is currently the case that

a: US power is still at present far greater than Chinese power (and the US military has been battle-hardened over the last 10 years while the Chinese have not fired a shot in war in any current soldiers' lifetime)
b: the US is in financial difficulties, with China the main creditor
c: the US political system is simultaneously grinding to a halt in terms of normal functionality and has become "seduced by militarism" as Andrew Bacevich describes it.
d: sooner or later, assuming no significant change to the current trajectories of the US and China, Chinese military capability will increase while US will have to relatively decline, which means of course that the balance of power will proceed to become less favourable for the US with every passing year.

China has to play very carefully right now, and must respond to the US diplomatic offensive that i referred to in the above post with great restraint, and accept that there are always bumps, even on a generally upward curve.

Any precipitate action on China's behalf risks getting into something big with the increasingly unpredictable, yet very dangerous, United States.