As long as the Chinese are fighting close-in to their waters, and even as far out as Taiwan, they have many advantages. Talking about them doing anything projecting force farther away than that (such as to the Western Hemisphere) leaves me highly skeptical.
I still hope that in the end we will be able to use their powers for self-delusion against them. We will have to take the first hit, a la Pearl Harbor or September 11th, because they will be ready to strike first. Once we have a bloody nose I feel we will have the advantage.
How's this for assymetric warfare - plant a Chinese special agent in the kitchen of every U.S. Chinese restaurant coast to coast, to poison all the take out?
American society is the only thing that can hold us back from victory against a real war with the Chinese dictatorship, because whether they know it yet or not we are on the side of the Chinese people.
You can't be on the side of the Chiense people while nuking China.