China is nowhere close to being a military superpower (800 billion dollars vs 293 billion dollars). And Chinas has only one military base abroad compared to the 750 military bases in 80 countries the US has. And China isn't sending its army to to countries on the other side of the globe, whereas the US is continously fighting involved in military conflicts, proxy wars or outright wars that are often based on outright lies. In the past 30 years the US military was involved in conflicts in Somalia, Yugoslavia, Haithi, Afghanistan, Nepal, Mahgreb, Horn of Africa, Iraq, Pakistan, Libya, Syria and Yemen).
China wants to grow its economy and become a technological powerhouse, this will make it the biggest economy in the world and threaten the position of the dollar as the world's foremost currency. This the reason why the US wants to bring China few notches down. The US is a superpower in decline and that's why its using economic warfare and pressuring its allies to do so to.
China does have some advantages. For one, the wages of personnel in the military and in the military industry are much lower than in the USA.
The other thing to consider is that countries have different ways of calculating military spending. For example, some armies count para military units, others don't. I think China does not count paramilitary units in their official military budget.
Another thing to consider is that China ahs a lot PMCs working around the globe, especially in Africa. These are former PLA soldiers. And these PMCs are directly controlled and owned by the CCP.
But it's a way for the Chinese government to distance it from whatever crime these PMCs might do.
The USA also hires PMCs, but these are private owned companies.
China also has a huge pool of people to recruit from and they use conscription on a regular basis.
The USA avoids using conscription, because it's unpopular and politicians want votes. So now the USA is having trouble attracting people, is part because of competition from civilian companies and a loss in the public perception of military prestige.
Also, the USA has a big health crisis, with a lot of men in military age, unfit for duty.
The thing to consider is that 30 years ago, China had a pathetic military force. With a lot of Russian equipment.
But they made huge strides in weapon development, having surpassed the Russian military industry in almost every field, with few exceptions, like jet engines.
But now, they have gone from copying Russian equipment, that has proven to be crap in the Ukrainian conflict, to developing their own tech and copying western designs.
So China is still behind the USA, but they are narrowing the gap. This ban on high end chips is intended to slow down Chinese developments.
