It is our enemies thinking our leaders would have the will to use nukes that has kept us from having to use them since WW 2. That will is obviously missing now and that is why we are being challenged and chose to back down. Why didn’t the ChiComs challenge Bush like this? It is not because of the “sheer number of modern platforms the PLAN and PLAAF are fielding, along with U.S weakness in logistics in that theater”. I think that is false. The USSR Navy had way more stuff to fight us with than PRC does now or will have in the forseeable future. It was the nuke threat and the belief we would use nukes that kept the USSR in check. Ironically, I believe “peaceful” Obama’s weakness makes us more likely to have to employ desperate measures than would be the case if we had a credible “war hawk” POTUS in office.
I disagree with that opinion.
When Bush first came to power, China didn’t have near the kind of conventional military power that it know commands. Back in 2000, it had no operational AWACS, no tankers, no LACMs, and no NOSS or SOSUS networks to track our assets with.
Also on the nuclear front, they only began deploying MIRV capable ICBMs(DF-31,DF-31A) in 2007-2008 as Bush was leaving office.
No doubt that Obama is a coward when faced with a real opponent. However, there is also little doubt that China has beefed up their military capabilities substantially over the last decade.