PRC acting like a dick to Vietnam, Philippines

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This shouldn't surprise anyone. I expect nothing better from the Chinese government.

I don't really get what the Chinese foreign policy is all about. It's as if they want enemies everywhere..... it's not going to work out well for them.

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In fairness, at a similar stage in its development, the US was seizing the Philippines from Spain, along with Cuba and Puerto Rico - expansionism far afield - and a little later on was doing a genocide in Vietnam.  True, China is bad news for everybody, and worst for these nearby weak states, but in context of the previous superpower, its positively shy and retiring.

But the Americans had friends in all the right places in those times. Non-whites didn't count, so they didn't worry about it. I can't imagine China's plan to act dickish towards SE Asia, India, Japan and the US is going to end that well.

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How relevant is it to compare ancient Chinese dynasties to the current communist party?

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India and China have a bunch of border disputes plus they built a dam on a river that flows through India and Bangladesh in defiance of the protests of the Indian government. And China likes to dictate terms in these disputes, as seen in the OP. I just don't know if they have the strength to dictate terms to everyone everywhere. Not to mention even strong nations need friends.

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India and China have a bunch of border disputes plus they built a dam on a river that flows through India and Bangladesh in defiance of the protests of the Indian government. And China likes to dictate terms in these disputes, as seen in the OP. I just don't know if they have the strength to dictate terms to everyone everywhere. Not to mention even strong nations need friends.

India and China are almost destined to end up on opposite sides - for one thing their relative sizes and proximity tend towards competition.  In other words India is too big and too potentially powerful for China to simply dominate (as it very likely may come to do with the Southeast Asian countries, alas).  India's interests (and presumably Japans) will be to try to involve the US in a close containment-style alliance against China.  Additionally India and China's economic roles are adversarial, in a way that, say Australia or even Thailand's are not (those are complementary). 

One final factor to mention is the very deep cultural divide which separates Indians from East Asians - I once attended a conference where most of the attendees were either Indian or Chinese, and the hostility between the two groups was hilarious.  The Chinese would pompously (and badly) lecture away on their topics, almost reading their papers aloud, and then react in utter shock when the Indians in the audience disputed every little thing they said, in real argumentative style.  They'd obviously no experience with such questioning.  I enjoyed watching the Indians poke at the fuming Chinese with little smirks on their faces, waggling their heads from side to side.

Interestingly most Southeast Asians despise Indians, while they admire Chinese.. the reasons are probably due mainly to this cultural gulf.  Thais constantly harp on their prejudice that Indians 'smell bad' (meaning B.O.), but never mention the horrific bad breath from the Chinese quarter (which to my mind is far worse).

It's not surprising that Japan has been cultivating very close relations with India for a while now. A containment strategy is likely what will be used, but it would also need to include the Australians and Southeast Asia.

I am not sure how much economics will be a factor. I don't think India and China's economies are more adversarial than any other two countries. There is a lot of growth in trade between the two countries. Power is the issue at hand, not economic factors imo.

And you are absolutely right that SE Asia will probably choose China over India if it ever came to that. China has had a close trading relationship with these countries for centuries and beyond. There's lots of Chinese who even live in these countries. India on the other hand (or at least the Tamils) were colonists in SE Asia. Those tensions still exist to this day.

Basically the topography of the Indian Ocean as well as the Himalayas cleanly demark the difference between east Asia and the subcontinent of India. India and China may continue to fight along the Himalayan crest but both countries aren't stupid enough to cross those borders, I don't think. China may think places like Assam or Meghalaya might want to join with them because they look similar, but they would be mistaken. The Brahmaputra river valley is most certainly very "Indian".