IIN we need to let China and India know

Today, in 2014, a single F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter costs about $70m upfront, not including the upkeep and training, it takes months to build one, Boeing is being forced by a deficit-obsessed Congress to think about shutting down production, and even if we could build thousands of them tomorrow, we would have nowhere near the trained manpower to maintain, arm and fly them.

Sure, that F/A-18 could probably whoop a number of Chinese counterparts one-on-one, and take out several opponents before it got shot down itself--but China, unlike the USA, is investing in larger numbers of relatively cheap, easily-built, lethal weapons whose production could almost certainly scale much, much, much quicker and more efficiently than anything that we are either building or planning to build.

A Sukhoi-30 fighter may be no F-35 or F-22, but how many times do the Chinese need to get lucky in order to either neutralize the advantage that those wonder-weapons confer, or figure out from stolen plans how to defeat their capabilities? [Xie xie, cyber-warfare] Our Littoral Combat Ship program is over-budget not by hundreds of millions, but by multiples of hundreds of millions, and those ones that have already been built are plagued with teething problems and manufacturing defects. Meanwhile, the Chinese are acquiring large numbers of smaller heavily-armed ships that may not be able to stand up to an Aegis cruiser, but can certainly get off a few good shots on any carrier within hundreds of miles before being sunk.

Even in those areas in which the USA has an indisputable advantage, our superior technology is apparently viewed as a perfect substitute for stronger numbers. The US Navy is building very deadly Virginia-class attack submarines at puny rate compared to the rate at which China is building both conventional and nuclear subs. And for reasons that baffle me, we have altogether halted production of the even more lethal Seawolf-class subs. True, each Chinese submarine is still not very good compared with our existing fleet [or so we're told], but all it takes is one sub to slip through the Navy's dragnet in order to make whole swaths of ocean completely off-limits to any aircraft carrier that wishes to stay above water. As you decrease the number of subs available to hunt their subs, the risk of a catastrophe increases rather quickly.

The bottom line is that America's technological prowess is hardly the one-sided advantage that it may seem at first. If in a war with China, a country which is reliant on production of weapons that were easier to make or repair, less dependent on computers or satellites that are themselves targetable by cyber-warfare, and can be ramped up in number more quickly. Moreover, America's more sophisticated weapons systems depend on some exotic metals and minerals, supplies of which could be vulnerable to capture or disruption.

[Sourcing Mr Murao, an American]

I've also got to add that your definite lack of economic understanding makes further squabble with you useless. You don't seem to understand that America is so heavily indebted to China. Foreign governments hold about 46 percent of all U.S. debt held by the public, more than $4.5 trillion. The largest foreign holder of U.S. debt is China, which owns more about $1.2 trillion in bills, notes and bonds, according to the U.S. Department of Treasury.

You don't seem to understand that (even if the US somehow does manage to seize everything worthwhile in China), America will not be able to make up for all the fucking imports from China. U.S. goods imports from China totalled $440.4 billion in 2013, a 3.5 % increase ($14.9 billion) from 2012, and up 189% since 2003. It is up 331% since 2001. U.S. imports from China accounted for 19.4% of overall U.S. imports in 2013. The five largest import categories in 2013 were: Electrical Machinery ($117.5 billion), Machinery ($100.4 billion). U.S. imports of agricultural products from China totalled $4.4 billion in 2013, the 3rd largest supplier of Ag imports. Leading categories include: processed fruit and vegetables ($973 million), fruit and vegetable juices ($542 million), fresh vegetables ($214 million), and snack foods (including chocolate) ($195 million).

I'm resting my case here. You don't understand.