The US's long-term military and political goals in the Pacific is to hand off military responsibility to Japan and Korea, because the US can't continue its heavy presence in the region without inciting conflict with China's rising hegemonic power. They wouldn't rely on US military presence because its viewed as more of an intimidating force than protective one.
Overall, we're an adversary of China on many different fronts, and their rise poses more of an existential threat to the US and its sole global hegemonic status for the past 24 years than not, and they are well-aware of this fact. The big question is whether or not China's on-going economic growth collapse is going to continue, because their projections have just not been fulfilled for several years in a row now, and it's starting to frighten the political leadership.
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