Actually it isn't to not be used. Its the force to back up talk and threats so you get your way. Every country exploit their strengths to get their way. Unfortunately China will be no different to any dominant military power through history but hopefully be a more passive and less violent player. The only difference is that ever since the original Cold War, the world was smaller, dominant meant global, there were more than one superpower and even lesser powers had plenty of weight to throw.
If all of this was just to not be used then it's all quite a bit of a waste. In many ways, all military spending is a waste whether it is used or not. The duty of the crafty politician is to leverage a superior military (unfortunately the US sometimes actually went around to attack much lesser armed opponents to demonstrate superior military). With a clearly dominant military that doesn't get questioned, China can extract plenty of negotiation victories. Sometimes people might call and you have to show how dominant you are e.g. China showing India back in 2020 during border clashes and employing microwave weapons. Some slight show of force during the recent Pakistan air combat against India. That was just Pakistan using China's lowest tier fighter that's still in production and an export version at that with export grade missiles to take out Indian Rafales of the latest block/generation.
Parade serves many purposes, one of which is to show the domestic public and drive up a bit of nationalism. China needs more nationalism not less. Countries like Japan and India have far more nationalism than China. It's just that the West doesn't complain about Japanese and Indian hypernationalism. Secondly, every now and again the US does need a dose of deterrence from having hot headed American politicians stumble into a kinetic war with China. China wants to avoid that. It wins regardless but wins with everything intact if it can avoid a shooting war with the US and of course avoids risk of nuclear exchange. Every now and again it's good to chart it out for Taiwan just how many times they have been getting lapped. Do it 10 times and they think it's a bluff, 50 times is a consider peace, 100 times and they will knock your door down asking for peace and willing to talk about reunification.
If all of this was just to not be used then it's all quite a bit of a waste. In many ways, all military spending is a waste whether it is used or not. The duty of the crafty politician is to leverage a superior military (unfortunately the US sometimes actually went around to attack much lesser armed opponents to demonstrate superior military). With a clearly dominant military that doesn't get questioned, China can extract plenty of negotiation victories. Sometimes people might call and you have to show how dominant you are e.g. China showing India back in 2020 during border clashes and employing microwave weapons. Some slight show of force during the recent Pakistan air combat against India. That was just Pakistan using China's lowest tier fighter that's still in production and an export version at that with export grade missiles to take out Indian Rafales of the latest block/generation.
Parade serves many purposes, one of which is to show the domestic public and drive up a bit of nationalism. China needs more nationalism not less. Countries like Japan and India have far more nationalism than China. It's just that the West doesn't complain about Japanese and Indian hypernationalism. Secondly, every now and again the US does need a dose of deterrence from having hot headed American politicians stumble into a kinetic war with China. China wants to avoid that. It wins regardless but wins with everything intact if it can avoid a shooting war with the US and of course avoids risk of nuclear exchange. Every now and again it's good to chart it out for Taiwan just how many times they have been getting lapped. Do it 10 times and they think it's a bluff, 50 times is a consider peace, 100 times and they will knock your door down asking for peace and willing to talk about reunification.
