"China should strive to be powerful and wealthy nation, but not seek hegemony, especially not through military mean. Seeking hegemony, especially through miltiary mean will only force Korea and Japan to invite the US in, or worse, go nuclear. China can still be "respected big brother" through economic means though. Build your hard power, but then build your soft power on top of that and use it to influence your neighbors. Your neighbors will be more inclined to listen to you."

I agree with you except about Japan. I think the right-wng in Japan certainly are not satisfy with being a 'little brother to China'. It wants to become the murrika of Asia. It will come back to haunt China when China is in another downward cycle again.

BTW, I think China has not handled the SCS problem too well. China's real enemy is the Japonal-merikan axis, not the small nations of SEA. What calculations Beijing uses I don't known. Maybe, Beijing's SCS policy is too much Amurrikan-focus.