Just a quickly* since i don't have any fully formed thoughts of my own on this, but Kevin Drum has an interesting post on how China and Russia have been passing up opportunities to expand their spheres of control. The article Drum is working off of is behind a paywall, so there isn't a lot to go on, but if you've been worried about an eventual apocalyptic show-down between the US and China, maybe this will relax you.

*it's like a quickie, but more formal.