Not much of a trap at this point. China isn’t a rising power but a straight up peer competitor. That military parade is possible just a bunch of fake prototypes but it looked to me like China has come a long way. And their progress on energy, AI, robotics, and so on is pretty amazing. It’s too bad they’re led by an authoritarian government, and that’s what worries me about a world where they are a superpower.

For the 16 examples given, being a neighbor or in close physical proximity makes it much easier to start a war. Who would invade who, in the case of USA vs. China? Or will they just fire missiles at each other? Or will it only be a proxy fight in a third location, like Taiwan?