"our military technology is far better than it was then" That may be so, but we still use the same basic strategies, and reguardless of how good our Tech. is now we still need the manpower to operate that technology, and we have far less manpower than they do. Plus what do you think they have been doing all these years? They will have better technology also, albeit not as advanced as ours, but still close enough. My point is, China knows we dont want a war with them, just as much as they dont want a war with us, because for both sides it would be a disaster...