Kent Harrington believes China has an easy game in Southeast Asia. Beijing has long had one foot in this resource-rich region - home to rich oil, gas, mineral, hydropower, rice, palm oil, coffee and timber resources. Although "no one in Southeast Asia is ignoring China’s strategic designs", which are part of Beijing's calculated bid for greater military and political influence, regional leaders "have refrained from reacting too strongly to China’s offshore ambitions", due to "economic facts on the ground". It looks as though they prefer to set aside their conflict with China. It comes unsurprising as many other countries also hold partial claim to the same islands and atolls in the South China Sea. Now they are "welcoming a stream of US military officials and defense manufacturers to see what America’s Asian “pivot” has to offer".

One advantage Beijing has is that the Southeast Asian countries have failed to form a military alliance, because they don't fully trust each other. In the absence of a major military foe, China tries to counter their concerns, by settling the territorial disputes on a bilateral basis where it could exercise influence over its much smaller neighbours. It is not keen to resolve the conflict in a multilateral forum by including the ASEAN or outsiders like the US or other Western countries.

China's carrot-and-stick policies work! It has become ASEAN countries’ biggest trading partner, which have a combined GDP of $2,4 trillion. The region accounts for 9/10 % of the world's population, with over 600 million people, and it has a highly skilled workforce and an expanding middle class. All the ten ASEAN members - Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines and Brunei - had joined the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, "despite US opposition", hoping China would fund their infrastructure projects.

China is playing an increasingly crucial role in Asia's economy. It has realised the "Silk Road Project" - an "conomic belt" running through Central Asia. The Maritime Silk Road connects China to Southeast Asia, the Indian Ocean, the Middle East, and eventually Europe. In the US, the leadership is "struggling to cobble together a domestic consensus on trade". Lawmakers within Obama's own party reject the passage of the Transpacific Partnership (TPP) trade bills. As China is excluded from the TTP, there are no tears shed over this lost opportunity. Instead ASEAN leaders aim to work on a "Chinese-backed free-trade pact", to replace the TPP deal.

Harrington laments the partisan divisions, that are "undermining America’s economic leadership". He wonders if the US would "find allies" in Southeast Asia, if "push comes to shove in the South China Sea"? With China's growing military might, it will most unlikely relinquish any territorial claims in the region.