Why is China suddenly poking the eye of Uncle Sam?

From a military and geo political stand point it makes very little convincing sense, but from a game theory vantage – its possibly the move that stands to yield the highest pay out for China. Having said all these, there is one limitation to game theory as a means of shining a bright light on the fog of war. It makes assumptions abt one’s adversary and adversaries and frequently these assumptions don’t bear any relation to reality….I guess what the Chinese are trying so her hard to demonstrate to the US reliable allies community in the Indo Pacific and Oceania is simply Kissinger’s dictum – it may well be dangerous to be an enemy of the US, but its fatal to be a friend of the US.