US military wont do jack if it means getting into an all out war with China. They still remember the Korean War. The Americans will send its carriers and cry in the UN, but they will NEVER get involved in actual military combat with the PLA. They will support Japan, Vietnam and Philippines with money, weapons and political support but the Americans will never ever go to war with China.
For all the US chest thumping, they have never ever defeated either China or Russia in war. They were losing to Japan in WW2 until the nuke was dropped which covered up the humiliating defeats the Japanese inflicted on the US military.
Who exactly have America ever beaten in war? Just rag tag poorly equipped, poorly trained and poorly coordinated militaries. Hardly anything to write home about.
US got kicked out of North Korea when the PLA entered the Korean War. That is what you call victory. Doing that to a military like the US was one of the greatest military victories ever. Everyone thought the PLA had no chance but even with massive casualties we managed to kick the Americans out of North Korea.
That's epic!
The US has never defeated a powerful military recently and certainly not a military with the firepower of Russia and China. Iraq and Afghanistan have no capability to hurt the American mainland thus the US has no fear of going to war with them. In any war, we can cause massive damage to the US. The US knows this, they have to pretend to not be scared and lose face as a global superpower, so they are trying to act tough before any war breaks out. Because once the war starts, the US will get it from the PLA just as much as they will dish it out to us.
Our capability to do massive damage to the US are increasing rapidly, thus the cost of going to war with the PLA is increasing on a daily basis. Once the cost of war is so MASSIVE, there is no chance the US will intervene on behalf of other countries to fight China in our own backyard.
If the US doesn't intervene, then it's credibility as a superpower is gone forever. To prevent such an embarrassment they are doing their 'pivot' to Asia to threaten China that they will interfere to scare China. The Chinese leaders and PLA knows the Americans are bluffing big time.
The great thing for China is time is on our side, the longer we wait for the war, the stronger we will be and the smaller the gap between China and the US. Our economy is growing which gives us the money, our technology is catching up rapidly and closing the gap with the US, our industries are becoming more advanced and sophisticated, our domestic consumer market is expanding thus reducing our reliance on the western consumer, our domestic production of natural resources are increasing and the PLA is rapidly increasing its overall modernisation and firepower thus closing the gap with the US military.
Once the gap between the two militaries are only a few years, then it's game over for the US. The military option is off the table for the US forever. The US will have to face a near peer military power in our own backyard.
I say wait 10-15 years and China will be so f***ing powerful economically, financially, militarily, politically and technologically, we will achieve pretty much anything without even firing a shot.
TIME IS ON OUR SIDE!