

The US always wins the invasion but pretty much always loses the occupation.
Air power isn’t how you win, because it’s hard to hide a jet fighter. Assault rifles, RPGs, IEDs and a willingness to fight longer than they’re willing to is what’s needed to win the occupation.
Americans forget that Canadians served in Afghanistan. But I don’t. I know someone who diffused IEDs over there, pretty sure he knows how to build them if needed.

A lot of things in China fall apart in a few years. You can build things fast when you don’t care about people’s rights and just force them off whatever land you need, and make people work insane hours. A lot of the amazing things China brags about is a Potemkin village, just made to show the authoritarian leaders they did got the project complete on time and they in turn use it in their propaganda. Authoritarians always love to brag about making the trains run on time, right? The reality is often different from what the media portrays it to be in an authoritarian country.
But still, China is slightly preferable to the US at the moment.