I have been betwixt and between for years on whether China could wage war on the West. They have always been limited to fighting in their own backyard, Korea and 'Nam recently but Japan and Russia earlier but that is conventional/asymmetrical war.
I have also been aware of China's leadership having zero regard for lives of their people, so if they fought a nuclear war against the US and "only" lost half a bill people while the US lost 100,000 they would consider that a win. Well, wadayano! China's population may not be 1.4 bill, in fact it is likely to be half that or less. That changes everything - they cannot be blasé about heavy losses anymore. Add to that the fact that the one child policy has limited the number of military age men, many of whom are spoilt, raised as single children.
Taiwan is a bridge too far for frontal attack for reasons stated above, even if the new US turns it's back and does not get involved in their defence.
All China has is unconventional black ops. We must resist.
