"But to be fair - any seaborne invasion by China will be Taiwan first and most military writers say they are not strong enough yet even for that short hop."
Exactly. It's barely 130km from the coast of China to Taiwan- and the Chinese military isn't even strong enough for that. That's why all they ever do is talk, talk, talk. They don't have the navy to mount an assault on a country that's literally right next door. They wouldn't even make it half way here with their brown-water navy and they'd be blown out of the water if they even tried getting ashore.
