This seems to be a case of mutually self-fulfilling prophecies at work: each side claims to be defensive against a foreign threat, and that 'defence' in turn is seen by each other as threatening which justifies further 'defence' preparation which then confirms mutual fear.
https://twitter.com/gonglei89/status/1315736725784719360
Simply insisting that one's own is peaceful whereas the other is completely offensive is just disingenuous. However, 'at least in Asia' (let's be honest, mostly on China's 'doorsteps'), doesn't China have a slightly more credible case than the US when it claims to be defensive?
Unless of course China, seen as the Other and mainly an object, isn't treated as equally human and thus doesn't deserve to have its subjectivity or its own security concerns. In that case, only 'we' are entitled to have concerns. Yet doesn't this border on wishful thinking?
Threat inflation occurs especially when one pursues absolute security & preponderance of power, even on an enemy's home turf. See examples of such thinking on China's threat from prominent security scholars in the US. In this case China's very existence would be a threat. 
‘We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security’. — Dwight D. Eisenhower
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