Despite being unable to even arm most of its troops, China handily trounced the U.S. the last time the two faced off in Korea, pushing it back out of the North. Since then, the U.S. has lost to the Viet Cong in Vietnam. It's lost to the Syrians, Russians, and Iranians in Syria. It's losing to the Taliban in Afghanistan. Meanwhile, China has advanced militarily quite significantly.



But all this is beside the point. The U.S. elites are heavily tied to China. They make a lot of money there. It may saber rattle a bit to try to get better deals, but the U.S. is not going to go to war with China. The U.S. only goes to war with countries that will not play ball with it economically, like Muammar Gaddafi's rich but economically cut-off Libya. It does not fight countries its elites make gobs of money with.



Think of the U.S. military as basically a private security force for a cadre of exorbitantly wealthy and powerful bankers and CEOs, and you will perfectly understand all U.S. troop engagements and probable long-term strategies. If markets need opening up (recent example: closed-off yet oil-rich Venezuela), the U.S. military is there. If the U.S. military presence will instead make it harder to make money (say by disrupting an economy U.S. elites profit greatly off of... as would be the case in China), the U.S. military stays out.



China is very obviously aware of how the game works. So long as it keeps the rich in the U.S. rich, and doesn't threaten their dominion over the world too much, it can do whatever else it wants on the world stage.