Imperial China thought it had two kinds of neighbors: barbarians and vassal states. The barbarians were people whose culture was only minimally impacted by China; they had to be overawed, paid off, or crushed. The vassal states were small neighboring states whose culture had been largely shaped by China. They were given substantial autonomy as long as they openly acknowledged their conceptual subservience to the Chinese government.
So what would happen if, say, China overcomes American resistance and gains effective control over the South China Sea navigation routes, thereby putting its foot on the throats of the Japanese, Koreans, and Vietnamese? They will have to decide to fight or submit. If they submit, the terms of their surrender will probably look a lot like the lord/vassal relationship of imperial times. They will be permitted to run their internal affairs without much interference as long as they don’t take any actions that negatively impact Chinese interests.