China is currently incapable of invading Taiwan, and will be for a couple of decades.
The idea of China invading Japan is even more laughable, given that the Japanese Naval and Air Self-Defense Forces are both currently superior to China's and actually are getting more powerful at the same or an even faster rate than China's.
It's an evil government and I'd be thrilled if the entire PRC Politburo was run over by a bus tomorrow, but there are a variety of ax-grinding agendas given to frantically overhyping the capabilities of the PRC military in the same way the "1 million man battle-hardened desert-experienced Iraqi Army" was hyped before Gulf War I. These groups include:
1) Those looking to sell books and articles, and hype sells
2) Trade Protectionists
3) People so fanatically obsessed with Clinton loathing that they feel compelled to overstate the capabilities of the PRC military (almost entirely the result of Russian, French, and Israeli technology) so that it can be all blamed on Clinton.
My biggest concern is SE Asia. No one has looked at that scenario in any depth. I know. I have looked in many places for substantial studies. Almost nada - everything is about Taiwan.
LOL!