Asian nations certainly feel Beijing has been pushing them around, increasingly. That’s why they pressured the Obama team to “pivot” or “rebalance” its policy and resources from Europe and the Mideast to Asia and the Pacific, a course already favored by the Obama team. To be sure, and at the same, Asian leaders worry about being too closely associated with a tougher U.S. They want Americans to be tougher, but they don’t want Beijing to blame them for it. (It’s the old story with America’s friends and allies.)

Then, there’s the question that troubles all serious policy makers—exactly what leverage does Washington actually hold over Beijing? No military expert dreams of challenging China’s military power on the Asian mainland. The manpower gap is insurmountable. But at sea and on the coastlands, the U.S. Navy and Air Force remain clearly superior. China’s knows all this. But the last thing anyone desires is a military confrontation. There’s no telling where this would lead. By the same token, however, China can’t simply be allowed to make its own rules at sea by asserting its unilateral rights and dispatching ships and fighter planes to enforce them. So far, China has been doing the asserting in both the East and South China seas, resource rich areas, much to the dismay of the Philippines, Vietnam, South Korea, and Japan.