America. Like, by a long shot... Let's just assume for a moment that no other countries get involved, since that introduces too many factors to discuss in one post. (This doesn't count for Military Bases owned by either of the two in other countries.) [quote]Seriously, we have a HUGE advantage over them in most categories. They have what, 1 Carrier in service, 1 in production? I don't know if it's even that. America consistently has TEN TO ELEVEN CARRIERS AT ANY ONE TIME. A Carrier Group could single handedly bring a nation down to it's knees. Our Navy is huge and ridiculously powerful. Open Body of Water = Ours. Then we have the Air Force. It's huge. Really huge. Biggest and most powerful in the world. We've got planes like the F-22 Raptor and B-2 Spirit Bomber on our side. If it was all out war, imagine what the devastation that could be brought to their major cities during a raid. F-22's escorting B-2's will be a near invisible force flying straight to the heart of their country to deliver an explosive present. Even then, we still have MANY more conventional fighters (F-15, F-16, etc) at our disposal. It's no contest there. We also have the Army and the Marine Core. Sure they're smaller, but their training is worlds ahead of what the Chinese are doing, plus they are far better outfitted. China has a large army of poorly outfitted, poorly trained, poorly educated peasants who join to get away from the life of well... a peasant. We have the means of withholding a force like China's PLA until an Airstrike can be called in. Our special forces would wipe the floor with them as well.[/quote] Now that we've gotten who is more powerful out of the way, let's move onto internal structure. [quote]To put it frankly, the Chinese Militaries structure SUCKS. Their politics and general system has resulted in an environment where Generals are going to be vying for power. I don't mean one general is going to try to secure a promotion before the other guy, I mean a legitimate issue where Generals become too powerful. If you've ever looked at the assignment list for an American General, you'll notice he doesn't stick to one assignment for very long. A couple of years at the MOST. He's being transferred from job to job fairly often. He's not going to be commanding the same area throughout his career. This makes it so a General can not build an army of supporters up, who are loyal to him over the state. China however, makes this mistake. Their general's often build up power in the aforementioned way, which regularly causes issues between generals. Their whole Military is "Stove Piped", where they have General's trying to build up a more powerful army than the other Generals. They're not loyal to the state, they're loyal to themselves. In this situation, let's say a B-2 strike from earlier happens to (Read as: Intended to) take out a high ranking Communist Party Official or General. What do you think is going to happen? Are they going to promote the next guy who is the most qualified? Hell no. Their's going to be a power vacuum to be filled, and the Generals are going to be doing their damnedest to fill it, even if they are at war with us. It could turn to infighting very quickly. To put it frankly, the Chinese Military is vulnerable to being divided and conquered via a power vacuum. This is not going to happen with the American Military. Lets say that the Chinese get (Very) lucky and take out a 4-Star. Is their going to be a power vacuum? Nothing beyond some office politics that will be solved VERY quickly as the next guy is promoted, or another one is flown in. The American Military is unified against a common enemy. The Chinese Military is constantly on the edge of splintering.[/quote] We've discussed who is most powerful and some of the internal logistics of each military, but what about geographical location and tactical advantages? [quote]Let's say that each Nation declares war on the other. Where is the fight going to happen? I'll tell you. China. You see, their's this thing separating China and the US. It's called the Pacific Ocean. It happens to be very large. Now, China's biggest advantage is its large army. Problem is, they don't have the capacity to move said army across a huge body of water. We've already got major bases in Japan and South Korea. We can strike them first, right at home. We've got a network stretching across the Pacific Ocean (See: Hawaii) with many bases. Combined with our Navy, that in the event of all out war, that Water is US Property. No way is China getting anything across to the Mainland. The war is immediately on China's doorsteps. Combined with our technology (An expansive Space Surveillance system, Intelligence Network, radar, etc.) we could see any missiles coming before it hits and take it down. China has practically zero chance of hitting us where it hurts. We could start pressing them immediately in the event of an attack, and we would know it was coming before it happened as well. Right off the bat we would be destroying any units they send at us, then we would begin to return fire as we go on the offensive. If we really decided to go all WWIII on this, we could charge across Europe and begin attacking them on two fronts. Remember what happened with [url=http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin%27s_law]-godwinslaw!-[/url] Germany? (Hint: It didn't end well.) We could pound them with Airstrike after Airstrike, infiltrate their territory, and take everything of theirs.[/quote] Historically speaking, Asian Counties who have attacked America at home have had a bad time dealing with the consequences. tl;dr We have an insanely powerful military that is unified, whereas China is much weaker and could be splintered easily. We have nearly every advantage over them. In short they would lose. Big time. All this would never happen though. Our economies are too intwined and it's in both nations interests not to start WWIII.