Tiamat
I've seen the future...
I would argue there is validity to both LordSovereign and Lanmandragon's arguments. The US has capabilities that far outstrip the Chinese, but the Chinese have also been playing catchup, to an extent for the past few decades and have been modernizing. Are they at the same level peer for peer as the US? No, although they, at least on paper have a numerical advantage. Then again, it does remind me a little of the quantity vs. quality argument between the Americans and Soviets back in the bad old days. China's navy is modernizing, but they're nowhere yet near the numbers and capability of the USN though. The Chinese had six carriers planned for deployment but now are scaling that back to at least four after budget shortfalls started biting them. I don't know how that effects the other branches of the Chinese military but their generals are often deeply embedded in corruption and kickbacks, plus don't forget, those with the guns make the rules, so I don't see too much of a curtailing of funds to the Chinese military as opposed to the civilian sector.
That said, any war between the US and China is going to suck. Both countries are nuclear capable, but hard to say if it would go that far. As it's been discussed before and elsewhere, there are other ways to turn up the heat on the Chinese without going to war, their biggest achilles heel....well, again there's several...an overleveraged economy, aging populace with too many males, a glaring weakness in their energy supply, not enough arable farmland to sustain their own populace, etc. etc.....none of these are conducive to an "emerging global power".
That said, any war between the US and China is going to suck. Both countries are nuclear capable, but hard to say if it would go that far. As it's been discussed before and elsewhere, there are other ways to turn up the heat on the Chinese without going to war, their biggest achilles heel....well, again there's several...an overleveraged economy, aging populace with too many males, a glaring weakness in their energy supply, not enough arable farmland to sustain their own populace, etc. etc.....none of these are conducive to an "emerging global power".