One Marine is worth more than a hundred thousand of them.
Doesn’t mean the Chinese won’t put up a strong bluff.
China is very close to having a blue-water navy, capable of extending its reach from the Malacca Strait to the east coast of Africa. And incidentally, at the mouth of the Persian Gulf.
China has a growing interest in controlling the sea in this part of the world, as that is where much of its petroleum comes from, and passes over. Should the US draw back fully from most of the Middle East, China will fill the vacuum.
China should recognize this opportunity, as the US is establishing a new perimeter, further back than they have been since before the Second World War started.
We have essentially given them permission. Lord knows, we are so overextended now, it will probably be only a matter of time before we relinquish the “world policeman” role to China.
We certainly cannot afford to do it much longer.