This is simply false. China is on a trajectory to be a “near peer” militarily, but they have some major shortcomings when it comes to quality and force projection.
Their navy is inferior to ours and while it is well suited to operate in their own territorial waters, it is simply no match on the high seas.
Their Air Force is nowhere close to being competitive. Without air superiority, it is very difficult to function in a modern combat environment. There is also no indication that China can counter our newer generation of aircraft or even be competitive with our last generation.
China has also not beefed up their logistics capability. Again, within their own territorial waters they can function, but force projection = logistics. Nothing happens until something moves.
Throughout my lifetime and during my military service our Pentagon and CIA has had a tendency to badly overestimate our potential military foes. After the cold war ended we had numerous high ranking Russian military men admit that the USSR was NOT on par with us and that we had overestimated their capabilities and the performance of their equipment. It was one of the most fascinating things to me after the wall fell, but few paid attention to it.
China is growing their military for sure, but in terms of technology, spending, and capability they are still very far behind us. Also consider that Japan (no slouch economically) is increasing their defense spending and capability in response to the threat of China.
RE: . Also consider that Japan (no slouch economically) is increasing their defense spending and capability in response to the threat of China.
And don’t forget India, which is overtaking China population wise and is beefing up her military because of a border dispute with China that threatens to escalate if cooler heads do not prevail.
Then there’s Vietnam, which has a dispute with China for control over islands in the South China sea, which China has continually provoked. They had a war with China just 3 decades ago and anticipate another one.
And Australia is beefing up her military in suspicion of China as well after the Covid-19 crisis and China’s takeover of Hongkong.
Of course, Taiwan has always been prepared for a CCP invasion.