My Take on a REALLY Good Spiegel Article:

...also-and this is based upon  ONLY anecdotal evidence: The shipping routes for the world's supply of oil depends on the US Navy spending a reported $160billion to protect the shipping lanes. As pressure builds for us to scale back on military spending and rely less on oil from the Middle East it may just be other countries preparing to pick-up the slack.
I am being overly-optimistic, but I think that there will be a point where the US need for long-distance importation of fuel will drop precipitously. That will make the obligation of our Navy to be a party to securing as much of the shipping lanes a financial favor that we don't need to pay for anymore. If we suddenly void patrols in certain parts of the world it would become a haven for even more piracy.
The reason why I bring this up is because there have been rumors-for a couple of years now- that US military contractors are guarding mining operation in Afghanistan.
Meaning: We are business partners on some level, not JUST potential adversaries.
This is just MY take, but I see that there is less actual animosity between us and China than is being sold, but neither the US or anyone else wants to admit we are 'drawing-down' on an international scale.

Financially, we have China by the balls. Their corrupt "Communist" leaders hold huge stakes in the banks. If we tell them to go pound sand on on our debt-we will be fine-their banks won't.
 We wouldn't do it without 'cause'. Their surplus would evaporate overnight and all of the infrastructure projects they are using to employ (and placate)peasants who would otherwise be unemployed AND they would have to borrow money to keep the peasants fed and housed.
We could also slow imports-or at the very least-force them to import what our treaties say (they currently aren't honoring the trade agreements on us importing goods there).

What I think is this: Since the end of the Soviet Bloc, I THINK (just a hunch) the West has been gradually hinting at this. I think the first Gulf War was an example: If memory suits me, we essentially CHARGED some of the coalition forces for our support role just so they could participate.
If we just maintained our present force, it would take decades for any other power to rival our abilities.
In short: We are shoring-up their power with ours for diplomatic means.
My HOPE is that this trend is for us to use our economic might to force other nations to carry their share of the burden.
The reason I say this is because of what I actually KNOW: N. Korea is evil (as a government) and they have made pacts with Burma to develop nuclear weapons and missile systems, and Burma has (since at least 2005) has been selling uranium to Iran.
If we extricate ourselves from NEEDING things that travel through those regions and no body takes up the slack...who foots the bill? Who actually does it?
 Is our Navy going to become a mercenary force to keep other nations' finances in order?
Another hope is that, we can stop acting as an empire in a way that grants everybody their own security by their own means.
Of course, I could be wrong and we could be hurtling inexorably towards WW III.
But I think that half a century of smart, well intentioned diplomats have been trying to head this off in advance. There are a lot of smart people working for our government (and others'). I think that they saw much of this coming.
Ant way...click the link, read the story. The translation might be bad and might have missed it, but this is my analysis-but I am just a citizen. I could be wrong.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/strengthening-of-chinese-navy-sparks-worries-in-region-and-beyond-a-855622.html#ref=rss