China didn't need to force project against the USA. They need to project force against Australia, the Philippines, and the entirety of Southeast Asia. Against America, they already had an excellent strategy going:
- Corrupt government officials in America (done)
- Infiltrate Mexico and Canada to surround America as much as possible (going smoothly)
- Facilitate the importation of drugs to poison America (harder but still not impossible)
- Clandestinely finance subversive actions against America (Palestinians, climate, faggotry- as long as the end is the same)
- Fund the Confucius Institutes to project Chinese influence into America (going smoothly as nobody seems to care)
- Appeal to the globalists when America objects to the above (ongoing)
The one flaw in their plan was that they underestimated just how much influence America has over the global economy and overestimated their own economic position. Trump's plan of "we can be retarded for longer than you can remain solvent" solves almost all of these problems by striking China in the wallet. I can see China leaning on their bought politicians to continue funding as much as possible with taxpayer dollars while China focuses on keeping order internally.