Dally wrote:
But haven't China got close to Russia recently? The only way the USA could deal with China is via nuclear weapons. That would be an extremely poor option for everyone.
Not close enough to warrant a 3rd world war no. And no it's not the only way at all. The US Navy is monumentally huge and incredibly powerful. They could quite easily IMO destroy the PLAN and hold the waters around China, which rules out an attack against Japan.
But it's massively unlikely anyway because politically and economically the Chinese are coming closer to, and are dependent on the West and especially the US.