exactly, they are co-ordinating and co-operating with each other.
It's been two years of open chinese threats, and not one confrontation between PLA and american forces on high seas. muricans are always itching to pick a fight with their real threats.
Infact there has been no confrontation by china with any other power except for India.
chinese planes in Taiwan ADIZ means nothing, that's arbitrary zone declared by taiwan, has no international law protection.
My concern is that the cooperation with each other is not about playing the good-guy-bad-guy behind the scenes and to force emerging competition to expend their resources, lose steam and emerge as a future competitor to both.
Think about it; Japan and Germany are unofficial American territories with different languages; Brazil is too far and doesn't have the military muscle; Australia likewise is tiny geo-politically speaking and will comply with American orders.....Russia has been reduced to a nobody with the US+EU sanctioning their economy, throwing them into Chinese arms, while their defence budget has only been slashed due to economic pressures.....
That leaves only us as the independent world voice that is neither in American nor Chinese control.
In case of a war, the US gains in terms of weapons sales, while we expend our resources to hold our fort. If no war happens, China gains more territories and more Himalayan leverage over us.
This might sound like a crazy theory but it cannot be ruled out.
USA tied up with China to weaken the Soviet Union despite no love existing between them.