One question that I have. What is preventing China from also producing Cheap Autonomous "replicators"? What exactly is the magic sauce that the US has that they can produce thousands of cheap autonomous weapons but China cannot.
Is this supposed AI edge? Not in the military realm. Is this semiconductors gap? If its so cheap to produce, it should have fairly cheap and low tech chip inside it and China should also be able to make it with their "low" tech.
This strategy seems to be straight up aping the PLA's "modernized People's war" concept. China was the one that started the program of seeking lighter, unmanned and automated solutions to match the US' numbers advantage.
The verdict seems to be that this was a smart decision, as US has been mostly deterred despite a smaller PLA in the past, and they're scared now that their numbers won't be enough for a confrontation.
It isn't necessarily a poor concept for America to also go down the same path, but China has a first mover advantage, and doing this type of arms buildup will still not avert the central issue of China just having a larger economy and even larger productive sector.
So I don't think the change towards a doctrine focused on networked warfare and lighter platforms will be an imminent threat to China, because it's nothing China hasn't been doing for a long time already. Whether US can make these reforms as effectively as China did, remains to be seen, and if they have a high degree of success, it could make them more dangerous in the longer term.