China is weak. They barely train their troops and instead make them watch hours of CCP propaganda and recite party oaths. Their equipment is still years behind our own. They are plagued by demonstrations and a growing anti-party sentiment in their own borders, which they pretend doesn’t exist. They know in a direct firefight, the U.S. has the training, experience, and technology to destroy the CCP forces quickly and effectively. In such a conflict, we would need to fear a nuclear exchange as that is what desperate evil people do when backed into a corner. Given 10 more years, this reality may change in China’s favor, but right now any military aggression against U.S. allies or interests would be suicide for the CCP.
We could send a couple of missiles into the Three Gorges Dam and deal a severe blow to the Chinese economy.