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Notes -
Because it's completely unclear that predation by China or (in some regional cases like Central Asia/Middle East/Caucasus/Baltics/Eastern Europe) Russia would be any better, when in fact it would likely be much worse. Sure, you can be a free agent with no permanent alliances, but that leaves you like the Philippines would be if they went full neutral; completely open to Chinese aggression. Much of the Pacific prefers the US to China. India is obviously fearful of China. In Africa and Latin America the factions are more mercenary, as we see. In Europe the bargain is that being part of the US alliance vs China is necessary to guarantee American support versus Russia.
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