a really good composite of China's perspective -
I particularly agree with
"...hide our growing economic and military threat.' as their military spending has rapidly increased and in the last week of January the Pentagon announced a plan to shift Navy Forces to "counter rising China" -
and China's role within the region has come to the forefront in the last several years with their new "proactive diplomacy" within Asia, - though there is varying opinion as to their end goal (eg. to eventually evict the US from the region?) -and it has been a source of concern for American diplomats as to how to deal with the "New China"-
I'm not certain I understand the question
"what role does China accept as the determiner of regional politics? (intentionally ambiguous to see what shakes out?) -
and though their influence regionally could be categorized in a number of ways -economic, political-diplomatic, security and multilateral - specifically to the political influence, I would say that China, now understands it's in their best interest to work toward building/sustaining regional stability (and serves to increase their regional clout) as they have sought and continue to seek greater economic advantage and political influence, all without compromising core Chinese territorial, security, or other interests -