Asia Rivalries Play Role in Aid to the Philippines David Guttenfelder/Associated Press A shipment of food unloaded from an American military helicopter in Guiuan, Philippines, on Thursday. CEBU, the Philippines - The American aircraft carrier George Washington has arrived, its 5,000 sailors and 80 aircraft already busy ferrying relief supplies to storm-battered survivors, and the United States has committed an initial $20 million in humanitarian assistance. Japan is dispatching a naval force of 1,000 troops, in what officials say is that country's largest ever disaster-relief deployment. Also on the way: the Illustrious, a British aircraft carrier stocked with transport planes, medical experts and $32 million worth of aid. The outpouring of foreign assistance for the hundreds of thousands left homeless and hungry by Typhoon Haiyan is shaping up to be a monumental show of international largess - and a not-so-subtle dose of one-upmanship directed at the region's fastest rising power, China. China, which has its own newly commissioned aircraft carrier and ambitions of displacing the United States, the dominant naval power in the Pacific, has been notably penurious. Beijing increased its total contribution to the relief effort to $1.5 million on Thursday after its initial pledge of $100,000 was dismissed as stingy, even by some state-backed media in the country. Typhoon Haiyan, described as the most devastating natural calamity to hit the Philippines in recent history, is emerging as a showcase for the soft-power contest in East Asia. The geopolitical tensions have been stoked by China's territorial claims in the South China Sea, and heightened by American efforts to reassert its influence in the region. China has showered aid on countries it considers close friends, becoming the largest lender in Africa, rushing to help Pakistan after an earthquake in September and showing a more humanitarian side to its neighbors in Asia. But Haiyan struck hardest at the country China considers its biggest nemesis in the legal, diplomatic and sometimes military standoff over control of tiny but strategic islands in the South China Sea. Over the past year, Chinese and Philippine vessels have faced off over a collection of shoals, and the Philippines has angered China by taking the dispute to an international arbitration tribunal. It did not help that the Philippines earlier this year accepted a gift of coast guard vessels from Japan and voiced support for Tokyo's plans to strengthen its security presence in the region, or that it is in discussions with the United States about hosting more American troops there. The challenge for China comes shortly after the United States appeared to suffer a setback of its own in the contest for Pacific influence. President Obama had to cancel a high-profile visit to the region this fall to grapple with the fiscal shutdown in the United States, an event that seemed to many in Asia to showcase American dysfunction. So when the typhoon struck an old ally, the Pentagon did not waste much time offering a robust show of assistance. "There is no other military in the world, there is no other navy in the world, that can do what we can do," one American official said. Michael Kulma, an expert on East Asia at the Asia Society in New York, said the Chinese reluctance to give more aid could hurt its chances to make a favorable impression in the country. "There was an opportunity, right up front, for China to make a commitment," he said. At the end of the day it could be that the Chinese end up giving more. But on the front end of it, they didn't stand out. At the same time, the relief efforts by the United States could give a boost to its already strong influence in the Philippines. Despite its longtime alliance with the United States, the Philippines has been tentative over what Washington sees as the country's role in its so-called Asian Pivot, which includes efforts to increase the presence of American troops on Philippine soil. But the American relief effort - which is receiving a lot of media attention in the country - might wear away at some of that reluctance, a hangover from the years when the Philippines was an American colony. Already, some in Tacloban said they would not mind more American boots on the ground temporarily, if it would help. Martin Fackler contributed reporting from Tokyo, Jane Perlez from Beijing and Thom Shanker from Washington..