Graham’s Musings: Seriously? That was a good hedge job if I ever saw one. Of course it could be said that China isn’t actively trying to displace America – America is doing a fantastic job of displacing itself.

China is not trying to “displace” the United States as a world superpower, the Communist regime’s top diplomat said while traveling in Washington, D.C., for a meeting that saw both sides downplay apparent strategic competition.

“China is firm in pursuing socialism with Chinese characteristics,” Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi told reporters at the State Department. “Everything that we do is to deliver better lives for the Chinese people, to realize rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. it is not intended to challenge or displace anyone.”

With that comment, an architect of Chinese foreign policy sought to allay a growing U.S. belief that his government is engaged in a broad-based, long-term effort to undermine American power on the world stage. Yet, he was also unyielding with respect to the key areas of potential Chinese expansion, such as their claim to sovereignty over the South China Sea. But Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also sought to downplay the significance of these disputes.

“The United States is not pursuing a cold war or containment policy with China,” Pompeo said during his opening remarks. “Rather, we want to ensure that China acts responsibly and fairly in support of security and prosperity in each of our two countries.”

Pompeo’s rhetoric was tailored to deny repeated Chinese allegations that the United States is reverting to Cold War-era suspicions of their activity. But it’s also the case that many U.S. lawmakers and members of the intelligence community believe that China has launched “a cold war” against American interests.

“At the end of the day, the Chinese fundamentally seek to replace the United States as the leading power in the world,” Michael Collins, the CIA’s deputy assistant director for the East Asia Mission Center, said in July. “What they’re waging against us is fundamentally a cold war.”

Collins added that “the Chinese are increasingly defining a conflict with the United States and what we stand behind [as] a systems conflict.”

Yang contradicted that view, but didn’t yield any ground when it comes to the dispute over his government’s claim to sovereignty over vast waterways of the South China Sea. China has built artificial islands on otherwise-minor reefs and shoals and deployed military armaments to the platforms.

“The purpose is to serve the interests of the Chinese people and also to provide public goods to others,” Yang said. “At the same time, it is necessary for China to build certain security facilities in response to possible threats from outside.”

He continued by accusing the United States of trying to militarize the region. “To use the freedom of navigation and overflight as an excuse to pursue military actions is unjustifiable,” Yang said.

While Yang defended the construction of “security facilities” on the islands, the deployment broke a promise that Chinese President Xi Jinping made in 2015. “Islands in the South China Sea since ancient times are China’s territory,” Xi said during a Rose Garden press conference with then-President Barack Obama. “China does not intend to pursue militarization.”

That context contributes to U.S. distrust for Chinese ambitions, even as the intelligence community has begun to believe that China tries to appear nonthreatening for strategic purposes.

“[Chinese] stratagems are designed to defeat a more powerful opponent by using the opponent’s own strength against him, without his knowing he is even in a contest,” top China expert Michael Pillsbury wrote in The Hundred-Year Marathon, a book derived from award-winning analysis at the CIA.

Perhaps recognizing that American skepticism, Chinese Defense Minister General Wei Fenghe emphasized that China’s growing military capabilities should not be regarded as a threat.

“I’m not just repeating an official line,” he said through a translator. “We will never seek hegemony, or aggression, or expansion, or an arms race. … It is only for the protection of China itself, to protect China’s people from war, to give them a life of peace.”