China has shown that it is not at all deterred by America’s superpower status and has challenged it right at its sharp edge by harassing its military jets in the Indo-Pacific.
https://dentedarmour.substack.com/p/china-taiwan-a-hawkish-us-foreign?
If the casual observer has even the most tenuous grip on world history, they will remember that China was once on the side of the West and, more specifically, the US.
They both lost ships and soldiers in the Indo-Pacific to the insatiable war-mongering evil of that era: Japan.
Perhaps the climax of that friendship can be viewed through the lens of Uncle Sam nuking Japan. Twice.