Changes

==Background==

==Background==

[[NATOs expansion]] and what the [[United States]] called its "pivot to Asia" produced a growing, openly hostile presence, headed by senior U.S. combatant commanders, on the peripheries of both [[Russia]] and [[China]] that aimed at [[militarily]] containing both. Not surprisingly, both pushed back. [[Moscow]] [[escalate]]d its objections to further expansion of the [[American]] [[sphere of influence]] represented by [[NATO]] and warned that it would have to react militarily if this were not halted. [[Beijing]] renewed its drive to end the division of China produced by U.S. military intervention in the [[Taiwan Strait]] to separate the combatants in the Chinese civil war that ended in 1949. Sino-American hostility grew apace.

[[NATO expansion]] and what the [[United States]] called its "pivot to Asia" produced a growing, openly hostile presence, headed by senior U.S. combatant commanders, on the peripheries of both [[Russia]] and [[China]] that aimed at [[militarily]] containing both. Not surprisingly, both pushed back. [[Moscow]] [[escalate]]d its objections to further expansion of the [[American]] [[sphere of influence]] represented by [[NATO]] and warned that it would have to react militarily if this were not halted. [[Beijing]] renewed its drive to end the division of China produced by U.S. military intervention in the Taiwan Strait to separate the combatants in the Chinese civil war that ended in 1949. Sino-American hostility grew apace.

As the 21st century began, Russia had no acknowledged sphere of influence in [[Europe]], though its European neighbors (other than the newly established state of [[Ukraine]]) remained careful not to provoke it. But, as the newly globalized American sphere of influence (represented in Europe by NATO) neared its borders, Moscow became obsessed with strategic denial of neighboring countries to dominant America influence. Meanwhile, longstanding objections by China to continuing U.S. support of [[Taiwan]] (the Chinese island province to which the US-supported losing side in the Chinese civil war had retreated) intensified. China sought to remove Taiwan from the U.S. sphere of influence in [[Asia]] and to deny it status as an independent polity. Despite having no claims of its own, the United States challenged China's territorial claims in the East China Sea and [[South China Sea]].

As the 21st century began, Russia had no acknowledged sphere of influence in [[Europe]], though its European neighbors (other than the newly established state of [[Ukraine]]) remained careful not to provoke it. But, as the newly globalized American sphere of influence (represented in Europe by NATO) neared its borders, Moscow became obsessed with strategic denial of neighboring countries to dominant America influence. Meanwhile, longstanding objections by China to continuing U.S. support of [[Taiwan]] (the Chinese island province to which the US-supported losing side in the Chinese civil war had retreated) intensified. China sought to remove Taiwan from the U.S. sphere of influence in [[Asia]] and to deny it status as an independent polity. Despite having no claims of its own, the United States challenged China's territorial claims in the East China Sea and [[South China Sea]].