Th Chinese have admitted, even recently, that their military would stand no chance of defeating our's. That's why some rogue Chinese general, I can't remember his name, said in the press a few weeks ago that China would strongly consider using nuclear weapons first if a conflict errupted with the United States over Taiwan. With all due respect, I believe the Chinese do not want a major conflict with us. They, like the Russians, watched us crush Saddam's military in 1991 and 2003 both in a matter of weeks. I seriously question whether their respective militaries could equal that. Also, China's economy is growing at a 7%-9% rate annually, with exports of over $161 billion dollars to the US. I seriously doubt the Chinese want to disrupt their growing economic prosperity and power. If anything they want to overtake us economically, because they know they can't do it militarily.
"I seriously doubt the Chinese want to disrupt their growing economic prosperity and power. If anything they want to overtake us economically, because they know they can't do it militarily."
In the age of the digital economy, you no longer need to physical conquer and occupy your opponents. Their infrastructure creep on what they consider future adversaries is now being noticed and monitored very closely. We let them take too much as it is.