Meanwhile, I've been re-reading some of Tom Clancey's books. I was quite interested in China and all the things Clancey said China couldn't do and the reasons China could not do it. For instance invading Taiwan.
Looking at the last 2 decades, with $10tn of currency reserves, the West strongly dependent on China for products, Islands armed up in the South China Sea to deny passage of US fleets and the development of carriers and seaborne assets to be able to invade land and hold land, pretty much every thing Clancey said China could not do (when he wrote the books and it was true), China now has the capability to do it.
We may not be going to war with Russia, but China? That's a different situation. Today the only real imbalance they have is a lack of strategic nuclear weapons and they are closing that gap as fast as they can.