China’s aggressivenessin the region isprovoking a US-led backlash that could contain or constrain it. To achieve what it considers its rightful destiny, China needs to exercise more restraint. Slow and steady will win the race.

Graham Allison has prophesied that unless it crashes or cracks up, China will beas Lee Kuan Yew once put it– the biggest player in the history of the world. Crashing or cracking up seem unlikely in the foreseeable future. But There is another obstacle that could threaten its ambitions or at least the timing of reaching its goals. That potential obstacle is multinational opposition of the US-led West –and important countries in Asia. To achieve what it views as its rightful destiny sooner rather than later it needs regional stability meaning amanaged balance with the U.S. and its supporters. It has to avoid provoking a backlash that could contain or constrain it. But such blowback regarding Chinas policies and actionsparticularly those in the South China and East China Seas– is rapidly producing an incipient loose coalition that could do just thatthe Quad Plus. Much of Asia is welcoming a continued U.S. military presence and Taiwan is even trying to insert itself into the equation.

The choice for China is not about right or wrong or changing goals. It is about where and when to exercise restraint. The lack of itor its diplomatic preciseness- is providing an opening for its US led competitors to mobilize a coalition against it. Indeed the US strategy of painting China as a threat to its neighbors and the international order is gaining ground. The Quad and its activities are obviously aimed at containing Chinas rise. One of its core principles is We will continue to prioritize the role of international law - - as reflected in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLO), and facilitate collaboration, including in maritime security, to meet challenges to the rules-based maritime order in the East and South China Sea.

Chinas actions in those seas including its new law authorizing its coast guard to use force to defend its sovereignty, sovereign rights, and jurisdictionincluding presumably in disputed areas have also pushed Indonesia and Vietnam towards the US camp. Even the Philippines– which had been deftly won over in the soft power contest– is now having second thoughts about downgrading it alliance with the U.S. There is growing support for the adverse decision of the South China Sea International Arbitration Tribunal and the potential of more legal action by Vietnam. European powers are even buying into the US strategy and its myth that China is a threat to commercial freedom of navigation..

Similarly, Chinas actions and the new law have strengthened the US-Japan alliance and provided an excuse for their militarization of the East China Sea.

China is dealing with these challenges individually by exploiting fundamental differences in interests and values between Quad members; and economics and its astute diplomacy will likely prevail over legalities. But dealing with them all together, combined all at once may be too much even for China. At the least these thousand pin pricks will slow Chinas march towards its goal.

China has declared that it does not seek confrontation with the U.S. or dominance of the region.It needs to demonstrate this at least for the time being.

The struggle for now is diplomatic and economic –not military– although that possibility and the disaster it would cause for all concerned lurks in the background. China needs to change its approach to the region and the South China and East China Seas in particular. It needs to do what the U.S. does not dowork with the grain. In particular, China needs to up its diplomacy and drop its in your face wolf warrior approach. As Kevin Rudd says an effective foreign policy means bringing countries with you rather than alienating them. It means respecting the region as important in its own right, and making Southeast Asia a core part of its diplomatic priorities, not ignore or try to divide it. China should not take Southeast Asian nations for granted or push them to choose.

If China continues with its increasingly belligerent and militarist approach, it could well snatch defeat from the jaws of victory or at least postpone it. Slow and steadyor in international relations terms– restraint and patience – will win the race.