China would be a Japanese province today, but for the action of US arms.
There is no historical basis for the pretence that China has a special attritionist way of war and a boundless appetite for it, overwhelming less numerous foes. The entire notion can be traced to "yellow peril" scare literature in Britain around the turn of the century.
As a Korean war veteran once put it, "how many hordes are there in a Chinese platoon?"
“Thousands of years of Chinese history show China practically never winning any sort of major military conflict, other than internal ones. Draws and outlasting enemies sometimes, is about it.”
China has controlled the same area for about 5000 years. Thats better than anyone else has managed. Areas like Nepal have fallen to them where the Chinese essentially wipe out the existing culture and replace it with their own.
“China would be a Japanese province today, but for the action of US arms.”
Perhaps, the Japanese were brutal but did not have the size or population to control China for a long time. The Chinese tend to take the long view and would eventually kick the japanese out.
“There is no historical basis for the pretence that China has a special attritionist way of war and a boundless appetite for it, overwhelming less numerous foes.”
China could field more troops than any other country. They wouldn’t be the best armed but they would be dedicated.
The Asian mindset is much different than the European, Middle Eastern, or American mindset. They tend to think long term and don’t suffer from commitment anxiety like we do.
On top of their military is their economic power. They have reached out into the world and could do severe economic damage to other countries.