No offense, but any suggestion that China somehow
needs to conduct an amphibious assault on Japan and the Philippines is absurd. Both countries are island nations with no natural resources. Only an idiot would want to invade them. The US decided to nuke Hiroshima and Nagasaki precisely so they wouldn't have to invade an island full of fanatical Japanese. In fact, it was always the other way around throughout history. Japan was the one that wanted to invade the Asian mainland because they needed the resources. Even today Japan needs to import 60 percent of their food or they would starve.
Of course, nowadays Japan has no ability whatsoever to invade China, so there's no need to worry about that. China, on the other hand, is holding all the cards. We got nukes. We got ballistic and cruise missiles capable of reaching every square meter of Japan. We got the H-6K. We will soon have the J-20. We will soon have stealth UCAVs. We will soon have hypersonic glide vehicles. China can disable every single Japanese military base with missile strikes alone. After that, we will start hitting critical infrastructure like power stations, oil depots, pipelines, bridges, factories, civilian ports and airports. Are you saying Japan still won't surrender after that?
The Philippines does not even need to be mentioned because they have no military. China can send semi-submersible drilling rigs into the South China Sea right now and start drilling. What is the Philippines going to do about it? Absolutely nothing.
Lastly, I urge you to take a look at Asia again.
This is the world's largest contiguous landmass with vast amounts of natural resources. If China plays its cards right, we can control all or most of it within this century. But you don't need ships to do it. You need lots of vehicles in the same way Genghis Khan needed lots of horses to hold the Mongol Empire together.
You need the J-20 for undisputed air superiority throughout Asia.
You need the Y-20.
You need the Blue Whale.
Once you control the Asian mainland, you will naturally control the coastal waters surrounding the continent for your merchant vessels. You don't need aircraft carriers when you have J-20s on land.
Now explain why we need to invade some islands when we can have all of Asia?
I didn't say need I said has to use. Now maybe I should have said if, but the implied meaning is IF it ever came to that we need amphibious assault.
I would say something would have to go terribly wrong for that to happen. Especially the Philippines, they are not backing down per say, but their stance has weakened. I have theories on why, but for the purpose of this discussion let's just say Aquino III has bigger things to worry about, the distraction is not working to his intended effect and he must turn around and deal with them.
Japan would also be unlikely, they are a huge trade nation, and no wars have taken place on a developed nation since WW2, and any would be very destructive, and completely destroy a nation's image. Let's just say we are not born equal, a dead Syrian isn't quite the same as a dead Japanese.
Having said that why did I say what I did, America has DDG-1000, Ford carrier, and a host of other high tech ships that so far outstrips what's available it's stupid, but they have it. It's to my understanding one launch of anti missile missile is 20 million dollars. The reason is not to use it. The reason is to intimidate, is to make sure you know exactly what could happen if it came to this.
Japan and Philippines, Vietnam still thinks they can defeat China, Japanese are constantly publishing articles on how China would lose badly and would be made a joke if it came to air combat, and naval battle. China cannot reach Japan, but Japan will land in Shanghai.
Vietnam claim China is not as well equipped as they think, corrupt, low morale and other things, and a war would humiliate China.
India is taking on China and Pakistan at the same time, Philippines, well, they didn't quite say those things, but they more or less implied that Philippines would win the war against China by their "admiral."
If this dispute us with America, which nation would even think of these things.
It's not because China hasn't been to war, it's because they don't think we are strong, they think our toys suck, our capabilities suck. Who can blame them, if I was Japanese I would also belittle what I see currently on offer, relative to their stuff. Now many experts have broken down these articles and explained why it is not true, but I'll say this, it's not a overwhelming win, at most it's we are a little better, not the American strength where just thinking you might stand a chance is stupid.
To your last point, I'm not worried for West of China, they are either great friends like Pakistan, friends like Russia, Bangledesh, Sri Lanka, most of ASEAN(Thai, Myanmar, Malay, Indo, etc are good friends as proven by many meetings every eyar) some central asian nations, and good relations like other central asian nations. India China is also doing very good. We don't need to worry about that part regardless of military or no.
So to sum up, I didn't say we are going to need to, I said we had to if it came to it. A overwhelming conventional force is a better deterrent than nuclear, because on the back of everyone's mind nobody thinks anyone will use it. For China to have the ability to protect our nation, to protect our interests, to expand our interests, all this is very needed.
If China wants to be developed, we need partners like the US has that would buy our goods and services, because of our prestige and because they must if they want to work with us. F-35 can still be sold is for exactly that reason, while JF-17 is a very competitive fighter for its price is hard to sell, because no one needs to buy it, they would consider it if it really tickled their fancy.
Sorry too long