...The situation in east Asia today is, I would submit, fairly similar to Europe around the turn of the 20th century. Booming and rapidly developing economies, new powers emerging and competing with older established powers, large investment in military infrastructure by everybody to keep up with everybody else. Defense spending as a percentage of GDP is rapidly accelerating in all the countries on China's periphery, and it's not because jets and destroyers are cool. They want to trade with China, but they do not want to be controlled by China as a result. That means boosting their own spending, forming alliances and increasing cooperation, and snuggling up to the US - whom most of them view as at least the lesser of two weevils.
China great at making trading partners and a lot of folks money, especially in the Far East. What they haven't been the greatest at is making friends and allies, their 'Middle Kingdom' attitude in some foreign relations endeavors is causing friction, especially combined with some countries' long memories of past Chinese aggression towards them (Vietnam in particular). So yeah, a lot of similarities to pre-WWI Europe though with significant differences as well.