We have no idea what the wording is like in the classified version. But the text of the Pentagon's unclassified 2016 report on China's military and security developments has already provoked "strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition" from Beijing.

Washington may believe that Beijing is overreacting, since the Pentagon's latest annual report to the US Congress is by and large business as usual.

But Beijing, too, sees Washington as overreacting: Not only does this year's report devote considerably more space to the South China Sea issue, but it portrays Chinese moves there as "coercive", misrepresenting Chinese actions and intentions.