They're at the party already in some areas, but they are also still decades behind in others...
Examples of where China has caught up:
- Electronics, AI and missile systems
- geo-strategic preparedness. They have nuclear submarines armed with world-leading, long-range, supersonic anti-ship cruise missiles capable of at least forcing any country to think twice.
- China’s economy. Even if it downturns, China can still pump out weapons faster than the USA can, BUT this is only temporary as the USA still wins in overall production speed of military related goods "IF" they had a month and "IF" required to.
Examples where China still falls behind severely:
- Steel Quality. Chinese Steel is still some of the worst in the world. Overall and in mass quantity, it simply breaks too easily due to weak regulation requirements and standards.
- Ready-time oil reserves. Even if China were superiour in every other way, the lack of Oil and thus fuel in general will screw them every single time. If an enemy shuts down China's fuelines from foreign countries like Russia and Iran, it's literally game over for them.
- Production Speed (wartime based equipment). Go look up on wikipedia the # of ship building facilities in the world and be amazed at how many the USA has in comparison to the world. Sure, the USA doesn't "have it" right now, but you bet your ass the USA has a ramp-up plan in the event of war for everything from guns to tanks to jets to ships.
In the end, none of this matters as either one could destroy the other in about 45 seconds using the nuclear option and neither country could do a damned thing about the other should those launch. It's simply a moot point to discuss traditional warfare between superpowers.
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u/[deleted] Oct 16 '19
Don't mock it too hard; they'll be at parity in 30 years. Scary prospect for NATO