China wants a world where interests can be respected and not necessarily zero sum. It's not about doing the opposite of what the US wants per se but if you want to go toe to toe and play the game the US wants you to play then you've lost already. Like I've mentioned earlier, many of you weren't alive or were too young to witness the last Cold War. The Soviets wanted to play the same game with the US, went toe to toe with it and lost...spectacularly. The leadership of the CPC watched this and drew lessons, one of which is that if you sucker yourself into reacting when your enemy is poking you to do just that then they have an advantage over you. Look at the mess Russia is in right now.
The west makes up a very powerful bloc but if you think they are all united at the moment then you need to look again. I wouldn't go as far as saying there are fractures but if you look hard enough you'll realize the only countries who really want to toe the US hard line towards China are the anglos and maybe the Eastern Europeans, the Germans and the French aren't too kin, in fact much of the world isn't. If the US were to start a war I don't believe it will have the backing it thinks it will. China has a military that's growing stronger by the day so I don't understand your statement about its lack of security.
Yes, you can defeat a country economically, lol! How was the USSR defeated? As far as I'm aware there wasn't a single shot fired directly between the Cold War belligerents so how did the seemingly mighty Soviet empire shrivel up and wither away so embarrassingly? It allocated much of it's resources playing the game you want China to play now; trying to keep up and go toe to toe with the west. You sound like one of those those militant diehards from the Cold War era that refused to see the obvious. The Chinese in "Africa" are mostly fine, it can be a volatile region and these things happen. It even happens to Americans.
Let me say it again: there's no Cold War. Not even close. The US wants one because that's the sort of environment they want to create, that's their comfort zone; an us vs. them situation so they can rally their people and the world against a common enemy. This is why they are trying so hard to create false narratives like democracy vs. authoritarianism or capitalism vs. communism. Imagine a so called Cold War were US officials have to come to China to beg for money and are calling seeking re-engagement, Cold War my foot! Thankfully, much of the world isn't falling for it and just wants to get on with it. If, however, China decides to form defense alliances with the likes of Russia, North Korea, Cambodia, Iran, etc then it will lend credence to the claim that China wants to spread its system and go directly against the west, the west will then rally even more than they are now, ASEAN will get nervous and start to align more with the west. In short, it will set China back.
If you want to win against the US, China needs to embed itself into the world's economic system (like it already has) to make sure any confrontation will be costly. It also needs to start working on decentralizing the world's financial system, the sooner the world ditches the USD the better, the US will find it harder and harder to fund its military expeditions. It will eventually reach tipping point where it becomes unsustainable.
