BEIJING: Within two decades the US will be forced out of the western Pacific, says a high-ranking Chinese military officer, amid concerns that increasingly militarised great power rivalry could lead to war.

Senior Colonel Liu Mingfu, at the People's Liberation Army's National Defence University, told Fairfax Media this week that American strategic influence would be confined ''east of the Pacific midline'' as it is displaced by Chinese power throughout East Asia, including Australia.

Time is running out for the US in the western Pacific according to Senior Colonel Liu Mingfu.

Colonel Liu's interpretation of one facet of what the new Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, calls ''a new type of great power relationship'' adds to the uncertainty and anxiety surrounding China's strategic ambitions.

It clashes with comments days earlier by his university colleague General Zhu Chenghu. ''We have no intention of driving the US out of east Asia or the western Pacific,'' General Zhu told a conference in Atlanta. ''But I don't think most Americans believe what the Chinese are saying.''