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1)From the historical perspective internal conflict within China would be the deciding factor.

2)India isn't dovish or shy about confronting China.

3)The PLA is comprised of mostly only-sons and hasn't been deployed in a real conflict.

> PLA is comprised of mostly only-sons and hasn't been deployed in a real conflict.

Sorry, did you forget the Korean war? Sure, Sino-Indian and Sino-Vietnamese wars were much smaller by comparison, but also very real conflicts.

Fighting an adversary like the PLA in occupied areas like Tibet, Xinjiang, HK and maybe Taiwan someday plays to the strengths of the US armed forces. It would be an embarrassing disaster for the PRC that would very likely lead to a collapse of the party and force them into some type of hermit kingdom, like NK.

The US has been in near constant war for almost 100 years, having big parades with uniforms doesn't make up for that.

A thing of note - this "near constant war" has always been fought against weaker nations, which the US military industrial complex has been able to outproduce utterly. China is a completely different kind of adversary and has historically proved that it can match the US - again I refer you to the Korean war, where China was able to check and drive back the US forces.

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