I agree with this statement 100%, very likely as we are all watching unfold on this forum from the various leaks over the last couple of months behind the great cyber wall the CPP is losing the ideological war with their own people. More than likely the issues with their neighboring provinces over the last several years is finally brewing over into the more CPP dominated provinces. The way they handled their quarantine, and how they've totally just dropped the ball with this virus has alienated them more than ever in the eyes of the international community.
In the age of information Chairman Maos China and the ideal of Marxism in general is in it's dying days. This virus in my observation was their last push to try to assert their dominance over the Western powers. I don't think their allies in the BRIC are very happy about how the virus has spilled over in their lands as well. The United States military and NATO in general are logistically more equipped, as well better trained for a war-time scenario.
Firing hellfire missiles in the dessert are just for target practice and good old fun in Burgerland anyways. The amount of bases around the world with American troops alone should intimidate the fuck out of China logistically. Though I doubt it would be a war of bullets and bombs, but a war of words, and as well an economic war. Trump doesn't seem like he is eager to be entering a World War type of scenario anyways, the chicken hawks have been disregarded in his administration very early on. A new prosperous Nationalist America and a stronger west will hopefully be the result of this awful nightmare we are all living right now.
My take:
China must fundamentally grow out of its middle-income economy in the next decade or so, or else it'll get trapped there forever due to its demographics and debt bubbles. The pact between the CCP and the Chinese citizenry has always been that in exchange for economic growth and improvements in standards of living, the citizenry would turn a blind eye to the CCP's abuses- but if the CCP can't deliver on what it promised, the country's stability is at stake. (whether the citizenry will realize this before the government gains too much power is another question).
Hence projects like
Made in China 2025, which aim to create a high-tech platform for China (incidentally, the targeted
Made in China 2025 factories were exempt from closing during China's quarantines). This means that it has to fundamentally get technologically ahead of the West.
Some more information by another user here:
https://imgur.com/gallery/pdCsSOQ (Archive)
How? Technological theft on a mass scale (in universities and corporations), huge government subsidies to suffocate global competition (i.e. to Huawei), corporate takeovers (to lock down patents), and finally Huawei as a communications backdoor (which itself was created out of stolen Nortel/Bell patents).
A second element involves breaking out of the US's Pacific encirclement and gaining resource independence (through economic colonization), which is why they're so intent on the Belt-Road-Initiative (debt traps resulting in Chinese control of ports and infrastructure), bribing poor Pacific Island nations, and grabbing the whole South China Seas. These will allow China to construct a series of military bases to break through the US's shield.
Trump has really put a wrench in their plans, and their biggest threat is that they can't continue their extractive relationship with the US and its allies.
I am a bit more pessimistic about a potential war- the CCP will do everything to avoid the war and instead weaken the US from the inside, and they already have their collaborators in government, academia and the think-tanks. Beware the China doves who call for more trade with China and the resumption of normal relationships!
The US is already in the early stages of a hybrid war with China, and they're probably aiming to get Trump out in 2020, while accelerating their plans.