Countries make themselfs client states of China. They alienate all other countries and end up relying only on China because China does not care what they do...they just want to make business. Actually China is remarkable for not wanting client states...most large countries want to exerts extensive influence on their smaller neighbours but China does not care...look at how many very small countries border china...yet China does not care...they do business where there is business to do, maybe cooperate on cross border criminality... that's about it...the only country that could be called a client state of China is NK, they made them self a client state of China after the fall of URSS...yet China does not care about what they do. Look at India Bhutan ties, Russia/transnistria/south Ossetia/many others...or Vietnam/Laos ties, that's what I call client states.
Where do you get that china does not want client states? All the evidence points to that.
Myanmar is the classic example, that's why they reversed direction, as corrupted and brutal that they are, they still have national pride and refused to become a client state. China used their investment and economic influence in order to exploit Myanmar resources in a way that is contrary to the interest of the country and its people, that gets followed by political intimidation, but not only that, at the same time, China supports and arms the rebels of the Shan province ( a drug trafficking region just about) in order to have even more leverage over Myanmar. No wonder Myanmar opened up to the west. China's embrace has fatal consequences.
Lets look at Cambodia, all that chinese economic influence was used the year that the Asean meeting was done in Cambodia in order to get Cambodia to follow the chinese line in such an obvious way that was even so embarrassing to the cambodian people that they had to change direction the following year. That's a client state, that's economic leverage used to pressure a country to follow the chinese line and that's what china wants to make out of all the countries in the region. And if the chinese line is not followed, then economic retaliation comes next.
The thing is, china is so greedy that even when countries are very friendly to china, like Malaysia, which was considered a country that was aligned with china for the most part, still, it makes no difference for them in the end because china still tries to grab territory from them, in this case James Shoal which is just 80 km from Malaysia's coat, so now the malaysians are like "what the hell are the chinese doing? We are very friendly and accommodating to them, we support them, and this is what we get?" So now they are starting to change direction.
Same thing is starting to happen with Indonesia; they were trying to stay neutral, but of course, china has to have claims over the area of the Natuna islands, so now Indonesia is rearming and getting ready to confront china
Same story with Vietnam, the chinese faction of the vietnamese government places relations with china above the country's interest, they kept trying to please china, but what did they get in return from their northern comrades? The oil rig!
China has become extremely successful in making enemies where there were none and pushing everybody into the arms of Uncle Sam.