KEY POINTS:
China has been astute in improving its relations with other Asian states in many ways. It has courted neighbours with favourable trade deals and, increasingly, with aid, investment and its flow of outbound tourists.
While China has piled up huge trade surpluses with the United States and Europe, and a smaller but still substantial imbalance with New Zealand, most of its Asian partners are pleasantly surprised to find they are selling much more to the dragon economy than they are buying.
The big flaw in China's courtship of Asia is its military build-up and the widespread perception that it may be designed to displace American power with Chinese hegemony. Just last month, Beijing unveiled another increase (of nearly 18 per cent) in annual defence spending. It insists that a lot of the rise will go towards better pay and conditions for its 2.2 million military personnel.
However, Japan, India and other wary neighbours also observe the progress of China's military modernisation and its acquisition of submarines, warships, aircraft, missiles and other weapon systems that enable it to project power much further away from its shores.
Since China has longstanding disputes over land or sea territory with India, Japan and several Southeast Asian nations, as well as Taiwan, it is hardly surprising these countries suspect Beijing will one day be tempted to enforce its claims with military muscle.
So China's moves in defence diplomacy are watched closely by its neighbours.
After a lamentably slow start, the Chinese armed forces are becoming a bit smarter.
They have been exchanging regular officer visits with Asian countries, holding bilateral training exercises and taking part in some regional security talks.
There has been a striking increase in China's participation in United Nations peacekeeping operations.
The most recent addition to the outreach programme was evidently intended to send the message that China is ready to be a significant player in regional military co-operation, just as it is in diplomacy, trade and investment.
For the first time ever, the Chinese navy joined a multinational maritime exercise last month. It sent two missile-armed frigates to take part in counter-terrorism training in the Indian Ocean with ships from seven other nations.
The operation used Nato instruction manuals and English as the language of command, which suggests the Chinese navy is keen to become increasingly involved in interacting with counterpart forces that communicate in English.
Hosted by its long-time ally, Pakistan, the live-firing drill also included ships from the US, Britain, France, Italy, Malaysia and Bangladesh. China's participation was a reminder that it has important trade and energy interests to protect in the Indian Ocean region.
Most of its seaborne commerce with Europe passes through the Suez Canal while around three-quarters of its vital oil imports come from the Middle East and Africa via the Indian Ocean and Southeast Asian waters.
Late last month, two Chinese Navy destroyers visited Indonesia. It was the first such call in 12 years. China has a lot of catching up to do before it can integrate easily into regional military training exercises.
This month five Indian navy ships had six days of manoeuvres with the US navy off Okinawa in southern Japan. The Indian flotilla is on a two-month deployment to East Asian waters. By the time it ends on May 23, India will have exercised with Singapore, Japan, China, Russia, the Philippines, Vietnam and New Zealand as well as the US.
For the first time, the navies of India, Japan and the US will team up for training. The trilateral exercise is taking place this week off Japan.
Some analysts have suggested this is a sign of a new power balance emerging in Asia in which the old strongman, the US, is enlisting the support of Japan and India to counter the rise of China in league with Russia.
But India has been careful to ensure its naval foray into the Pacific cannot be misconstrued by Beijing. On the same day several of its ships train with the Japanese and US navies, other vessels from the same flotilla will exercise with China off the Chinese coast.
Then, to reinforce New Delhi's message of friends with all and enemies to none, the Indian ships will come together again before heading to Vladivostok to exercise with the Russian navy.
* Michael Richardson is former Asia editor of the International Herald Tribune and a security specialist at the Institute of South East Asian Studies, Singapore.
