The chips are down. China’s 19th party congress has rubberstamped support for President Xi Jinping’s ambition for a China-led world order in the future, the Americans are “woke” to that reality and India has an opportunity to make a differenceJapan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has come back with a fresh mandate after a risky snap election to add his country’s considerable heft to the clarifying dynamic. Last year, Tokyo committed $200 billion for international infrastructure projects. India and Japan announced the Asia-Africa Growth Corridor in May to partner in development projects.These are concrete responses to China’s push for influence. In other words, facts on the ground are changing and a critical mass could make a difference. Australia is eager to join India, the US and Japan and complete the “quad” of democracies . It walked out the last time after China raised eyebrows — Chinese influence in Australian politics is a matter of fact, not conjecture. India will have serious questions but New Delhi has signalled it’s open to discussing the idea.India, the US and Japan have already been talking about an overall strategy to provide an alternative to China’s One Belt, One Road initiative (OBOR), and counter Beijing’s biggest strategic play. Just a few months ago, India stood in solitary splendour as the only major critic of OBOR as Xi celebrated in front of an impressive international audience of leaders and underlings.India now has company, with Washington loudly declaring that OBOR is nothing but “predatory economics” by another name. That most Asian countries are deeply worried about bargaining their sovereignty for development is no longer a secret. Five months after the high-voltage OBOR summit, more and more governments are wondering if they walked into a trap.But the starkest question facing Asia is whether the US under President Donald Trump’s leadership can maintain the balance of power in its favour, ensure order and help create more mechanisms to counter China’s ambition, reach and deep pockets. In other words, can it do a real pivot this time?Not for a minute should anyone doubt Xi’s resolve or the Chinese Communist Party’s unquestioning support for him, especially after the skilful elimination of potential rivals. His power is absolute and theories — hopes rather — that the system will crack under its own burdens are unrealistic as they always have been. The system hasn’t collapsed — it accommodates just enough to ease the pressure, letting nationalism take care of the rest.Yes, the game is unfair when one side is unencumbered and the other is bogged down in a million debates inherent to open, democratic systems. But that’s how Dangal unfolds in the real world.US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s Diwali speech and his subsequent visit to South Asia this week were a big step in providing an overall policy framework and much-needed coherence. Finally the State Department looked at India and China together instead of thinking of them as separate compartments in a dangerously archaic paradigm.Tillerson has proposed a partnership with India “for the next 100 years” in an attempt to project for the long term and give New Delhi confidence. The world needs the two countries to come together to ensure freedom of navigation, rule of law and free trade in the Indo-Pacific, he said. The speech was about India but it was also the Trump Administration’s first wellconsidered response to OBOR.Tillerson was sharply critical of China. He called Beijing out for violating international norms and subverting the sovereignty of its neighbours. No other administration has used the kind of direct language he did to challenge China.There is also more clarity in US policy on Pakistan than ever before and less room for Rawalpindi’s games, despite its apologists working overtime in Washington. The tone is different and the ultimatums to Pakistan to shut down the terrorist bazaar sound more real. But does the bark have a real bite or will the Americans go for another ride on the roller coaster of partial compliance, tactical delivery of hostages and terrorist leaders with no real change?The White House must hold firm on Pakistan and call its bluff. It should also stop worrying about Pakistan going completely into the Chinese camp – that bus left sometime ago and with encouragement from the previous administration when US officials and experts were happy that China was sharing the “burden” of Pakistan and Afghanistan.If the US holds firm on Pakistan, it will raise confidence levels in New Delhi and strengthen resolve to tackle the long-term threat of China. Tillerson’s speech and visit --both of which went down well in New Delhi – must be result-oriented. He has put India at the centre of a wider Indo-Pacific strategy. It is not a trap, as some fear, but an opportunity to build.And, no, India is not assuming the role of an American “vassal” in a “complex tug of war” as one newspaper editorialised but acting in its own national interest, which happens to find convergence with Japan and the US.