A risk is an eventuality, positive or negative, which might happen. An issue has happened.
The Chinese military presents a risk. It is also the least proven of any major military. That tends to mitigate the risk somewhat. How big a risk does the Chinese military present to us? I don’t know and I doubt that the very best Stateside experts know, either.
I do know that the Chinese military is not an issue, at least not for us. Treating a risk as though it were an issue does us no good. Where the Chinese military is an issue is in cyberwarfare, that is the area in which it is the most proven, and that’s why I suspect that the most likely source of confrontation between China and the United States is in unconventional warfare and, indeed, that’s already where we are. That’s where they’re strong and the most proven rather than where they’re unproven. We should be responding with more strenuous measures, exploiting our own strengths, but, puzzlingly, we aren’t.
“It is also the least proven of any major military. That tends to mitigate the risk somewhat.”
It doesn’t mitigate the risk, it makes the risk harder to quantify.
“How big a risk does the Chinese military present to us?”
The answer is entirely situationally dependent.
“Treating a risk as though it were an issue does us no good.”
I agree but I don’t think that’s what we’re doing.