The Chinese military fears that the American war on terrorism is providing the US with an excuse to establish bases and relations that will surround and strangle China. This is an old Cold War belief highly popular among Communist leaders (military and civilian). During the Cold War, the US was building bases and alliances that way. But since the end of the Cold War we aren't. But the Communists still run China and Cold War era thinking survives. Many think of it as a form of patriotic paranoia.