We use our position as a developing country to win the hearts of third world countries and hide our growing economic and military threat.
We denounce the war in Iraq and now we better position ourselves for MidEast oil, which we need for our growing economy. We can also insert our influence in the Middle East by not agreeing to a trade embargo with Iran and that will put us in a great position to secure oil. While the US is fighting its war on terrorism we are positioning ourselves to be a super power in the next 2 decades.
We realize superpowers are measured by their economic growth and our GDP has been growing by about 9% annually with greater growth in the technological areas. Which will allow us in ten years have economic parity with the US on defense spending.
While the US fights it war on terrorism we will be getting militarily ready by thinking about war on the oceans or possibly in space. We see naval superiority as a means to becoming a superpower in the upcoming decades. One of our goals is to continually expand our influence on the seas until we can exert control over US fleet movements. We are investing heavily in submarines.
Regionally we want to provide security to our neighboring countries so we usurp the need for a US presence in our region. We also want to keep regional countries from uniting against us so we are using soft power (economic) to get what we want.
We could intervene and keep North Korea from increasing its nuclear capabilities but we don't because we want to be seen as accepting of another country's sovereignty. Also it keeps the US busy with another threat while we amass economic and regional power. We need time for this and North Korean antics serve our goals.
So while the US is otherwise engaged we are doing what we can to reduce the influence of both Japan and Australia in the region. We have offered free trade agreements, which benefit us because our goods are much cheaper than theirs. We offer pro China countries better deals. We have no qualms about openly mixing economics and politics. Oh and befitting our new image of an emerging capitalist economy we have adopted the adage if you can’t beat them (yet) join them and we are conducting joint military exercise with Australia, Philippines, Japan. We are on our way.