The "rebalancing" of US attention, activities and forces toward the Pacific as it has been officially announced and pursued by the White House, US foreign policy and the Pentagon since the beginning of 2012 has aroused concerns in Beijing with regard to the actual intentions behind this change in strategy.

China fears that the entire "strategic turnabout" of the United States from the Atlantic to the Pacific could primarily be to impede China's further ascendancy in order to keep China as weak as possible for the in the eyes of a few very conservative US strategists inevitably imminent confrontation in the Pacific.

Conversely, many Western especially US politicians fear that with its tremendous potential China could not only become an economic danger but also militarily oust the US from its leadership and regulatory role in the long term.