I agree with James Holmes’s remark at RealClearDefense that the Chinese believe that they will have won a war with the U. S. if they can do so without firing a shot. They may be well on their way to doing so already. I’m not as confident as he about the “Chinese way of warmaking”. I don’t think that we know what it is and I don’t think the Chinese know what it is. The People’s Liberation Army is mostly focused inwards and has never seen major combat. Allow me to quote from a Western sage of warfare: no battle plan survives contact with the enemy.
If China has already “won” they why are they continuing to develop, at great expense, the military and supporting capabilities to fight the United States and, potentially, our allies?
I think it’s likely that China would like to see the US fold in the region, and allow Chinese hegemony instead, but they obviously realize that the US is unlikely to simply forfeit its position.