China is using trade and no-strings-attached aid to inveigle its way into the hearts of Africans and Latin Americans. It is building up its military and risking a showdown with the United States, most likely over Taiwan.

But the warnings of impending confrontation reflect less the realities of China's new global stance than the unrealities of the US foreign policy establishment, which believes that the laws of geopolitics require an equal but opposite fall on the other side of the globe.

Journalist Joshua Kurlantzick

in his recent book Charm Offensive

"As the United States remains unpopular in many parts of the world, China finds willing partners," Kurlantzick writes. "In the worst-case scenario, China eventually will use soft power to push countries to choose between closer ties to Washington and closer ties to Beijing."