Here is some follow-up on this story:
And here is my problem with First Thought again… this story originated with the Wall street journal, US officials deny the story, but this is an example of US fear-mongering? It sounds like to me, it’s a case of the WSJ fear-mongering (a paper owned by Rupert Murdoch, who isn’t exactly reliable in terms of pesky things like facts), and the US government is dismissing the reports out of hand… 
So, it’s a bit disingenuous to say that this is US fear-mongering, I’d argue. Is there a problem with that, with regards to China and how they’re discussed in US politics - sure. But this doesn’t seem like a case where that’s happening here. From what I can see about the Biden administration, they are trying to both get back to a better relationship with China, but also trying to shore up their alliances with countries that have (some legitimate) concerns about China projecting it’s power in the region.
Much like with how they cover Russia, US can both be an imperial power, and both Russia and China can also be imperial powers of their own. It’s just not accurate to portray Russia and China as innocent in how world events are unfolding, as only reactive to the US. Nor are they some sort of communist state anymore. They are all part of the capitalist world economy, too. Of course they have their own agendas, part of which is certainly displacing the US as the hegemonic power. It just seems to me that ANYONE trying to be the hegemonic power in the world should be considered somewhat threatening to world peace and some actual human stability.
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