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.
How does China act dickish against India?
That would be a somewhat sensible remark if Europeans hadn't colonized most of the world. Not so much in reality.
