The maritime trade graphics are interesting, and illustrative.

The the percentage of the world's merchandise and commodity trade passing through SE Asia is often interpreted as a threat from China, on the assumption that China could do great damage by interrupting that trade. What that assumption fails to recognize is that the vast majority of that trade is moving in or out of China, and that China is the party most vulnerable to any trade disruption in the area. The graphics above represent less a threat from China than a threat to China: a trade interruption in the Starais of Malacca, or further abroad in the Indian Ocean, where the PLAN has virtually no capacity to project power, would be a problem of staggering dimensions for China, which depends on trade more than any nation in the world.