Interesting Take. "China's Air Force is built to bluff, not battle"

 

🇨🇳 WINGS OF DECEPTION: CHINA’S AIR FORCE IS BUILT TO BLUFF, NOT BATTLE

China wants you to believe it owns the sky. And at first glance, why not? It’s got over 3,000 aircraft, stealth fighters that look like they were sketched by Marvel concept artists, and bombers so big they… pic.twitter.com/f6lCiLvzXQ

— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) December 13, 2025

From his tweet... 

Meanwhile, China has all the support gear of a garage band trying to headline Coachella. A couple dozen refuelers. A handful of AWACS planes. A strategic airlift capacity that couldn't support a decent summer camp, let alone a cross-strait invasion. Want to seize Taiwan? Great. Just make sure your jets are back in time for lunch. 

And let’s not ignore the rot inside. 

Corruption is so baked into China’s military-industrial complex, you could cut it into slices and serve it at a banquet. Defense ministers have been purged. Rocket fuel’s been swapped for water. (No, really.) And generals get promoted less for tactical brilliance and more for clapping loudest during Xi Jinping's speeches. So what’s all this shiny junk actually for? Intimidation. 

China built a war machine it doesn’t expect to use. It’s the geopolitical version of flexing in the mirror before a bar fight and hoping nobody calls your bluff. The J-20 looks scary from a distance. The bombers look big on satellite images. But if the shooting starts, that illusion burns up faster than their engines do.

Hmm.  If we leave out the new shiny toys they've just introduced I wonder if we have to give him credit?

When it comes to aerial warfare I get it but is he looking at this from a regional perspective or globally?

That's what has me spinning when it comes to a fight with China over Taiwan.  If we're talking about taking all our gear and putting it in the Pacific to wage war against them then I'm onboard.

But it ain't like that.

We're operating globally.  They're just worried about their backyard and in particular, what they consider a breakaway province around 90 miles from their mainland.

I truly believe in a mythical war between the US and China, S. Korea will sit it out. Australia is too far away and has too small an Air Force or Navy to be of much help.  Japan will jump in but is it enough to make up for our numerical disadvantage?

Another thing that concerns is how far ahead are we really?  I was shocked to see the Rafale get smashed so hard by the Pakistani Air Force.  

We're assuming superiority but a proxy fight revealed a narrow fight if not an outright draw.

Have to chew on this one a bit.