Can America meet the China challenge in Southeast Asia? | The Strategist

Most SEAsian countries look on China with distrust, at best. Vietnam fought a war with China in modern times (‘78 or so).

Both Burma (Myanmar) and Laos have list territory to Chinese incursions, most notably in the former ‘Golden Triangle’ regions.

Malaysia (formerly Malaya), Indonesia, and the Philippines have all fought Chinese-backed insurgencies.

They know which end of the tiger has teeth. And deal with it accordingly.

Chinese intervention in their own economy will hamper their growth. At the same time, the talk of "Great Powers" that is popular among the chattering classes today, is a little disturbing - especially when combined with American and European populism. Frequently, I encounter references to things like "trade imbalances" from folks who really ought to know better than to believe in the existence of a trade imbalance. The view that there exists a "balance of payments" has adherents among people who think that economic activity exists for sake of advancing the state and/or that the state should in some way direct economic activity. Such a view fails to see that free enterprise and rule-of-law will generate the greatest strength. Neither the US nor the Chinese seem to fully understand that, but the US is not as far away from it as are the Chinese.

Depends IF we are smart enough to recognize the threat. I see China rarely mentioned in the news. The low population and Financially problematic country of Russia is perceived as a threat. China has newer weapons, and weapons developed at our weaknesses.