The US pilots had much more flying hours, better training (not sure) and very much more experience than the China's pilots.
More total flying hours mean very little unless you have detailed breakdowns of what they do in those hours.
American pilots are now almost all trained for multi-role missions to make the best use of their multi-role planes. However, that also means that they are dividing their training time between multiple tasks.
OTOH, Chinese pilots are still mostly single role, especially for the main air superiority fighters. It could easily be that while American pilots get more hours, they spend fewer training on air combat than Chinese pilots. May not be the case, but its just to illustrate that simply taking total flying hours is not a very accurate basis to make conclusions upon.
Coupled with the fact that the US pilots will be piloting very advance F-16, F-15 and F-22... and in near future, they will also be piloting the F-35. China on the other hand, had the bulk of their air force still operating J-7 and J-8. Although the number of J-11 and J-10 are increasing, they are not near US's F-16 and F-15 squadons.
And pray tell where those advanced land based fighters will be operating from.
Any base those fighters can operate from are within range of Chinese land based cruise missiles. Any base outside of land base cruise missile range will also be too far to operate from to make a meaningful impact (air refueling is slow and can only handle a small number of planes, greatly limiting sortie rates, in addition, extended range operations will also put enormous strain on the pilots, especially over extended periods). In addition, cruise missile carrying PLA strike assets could also extend their missile reach to include all US basis west of Hawaii.
Oh, just another thing, it is stupid to compare fighters individually and come to any conclusion. In a real war scenario, those J8s and J7s will be operating with other PLA assets that will greatly help to limit their shortcomings.
The J8 is actually an excellent BVR fighter. It has a very respectable service ceiling and speed, which will give it a crucial edge in weapons range and terminal energy.
The J7 is also extremely dangerous close in, especially with PL8s and HMS'. There have been stories of them owning Flankers in close combat when flown by good pilots. While they may have trouble getting close in themselves, they will be operating under the support of BVR platforms like the Flankers, J10s and J8s, and quite possibly also JH7s with jamming pods. That will pose a very difficult choice for American pilots. They can either duel it out with the PLA BVR platforms, and risk letting the J7s get in amongst them, or they can divide some of their weapons targeting the J7s (if they can get past the jamming) and risk a much lower kill ratio against the PLA 4th gens as instead of firing two AMRAAMs at each plane, they are only firing one.
Oh, and the PLA can mix it up even more by using their J7 drones. Just send the drones in as a first wave to soak up missiles, and have the manned planes come in immediately after and face a much weaker foe with no loss of life.
J7s would also be ideally suited to move in and take out incoming USN cruise missiles after AWACS or other fighters have spotted them. This gives respite to the land based air defenses while detraction little from combat might facing USN strike fighters.
It would stupid to dismiss highly capable and useful assets based on a very limited and unrealistic expectation of one-on-one contests like some fairy tail throw back to medieval knight honor duels.
Plus does China had the capability to fight multiple theaters of war... in this hypothnesis, let say, Japan and Taiwan decided to join forces with US, in addition of supplying bases for US to launch their assault, they also provide Navy and air forces to the US.
Could China actually defend against attacks on both Fujian regions and Shandong regions...
And on what basis is that hypothesis based on? Taiwan would almost certainly sit out unless the showdown is because of it. They have the least to gain and the most to loose to get stuck in. It they were to make a move, their best bet would be to sit neutral during the conflict, and then declare independence after the PLA has battered itself bloody against the US military and is in no position to mount a successful invasion.
Japan is more likely to get involved, but they cannot bring much new to the table. Their air force and navy have very limited long range strike capabilities, and their bases are far from the Chinese mainland. Their warships might add a lot to the defensive capabilities of USN fleets, but not enough to change the general paradigm that if the PLA can find the USN fleets, they can put enough missiles in the air to complete saturate the fleet's air defenses.
China's navy are not nearly big enough to tackle the combined might of the Japanese, Taiwan and US.
It doesn't have to. The PLAN will play a very defensive role in any war. Their sub fleet will be the main offensive force, and will likely engage heavily in mine warfare at the onset of hostilities and then switch to ambush tactics.
The surface fleet will likely act almost as mobile SAM batteries to extend the threat zone further out and also act as mobile reserves to help plug any holes the US might cut in land based SAM coverage.
In this hynothesis, please not that with US fighting a war with opponent like China... I think they will have to commit quite a vast portion of her airforce and almost the entire Navy in the battle, and lets say that there are no third power ready to attack US in her main soil, then do you think all the other assumption of China's air defence are still capable enough to defend herself.
That say, however, I do not believe such incident will ever occur. This is mainly because of too many things to lose, the cost of that war will be almost incredible as compared to war in Iraq, Afganistan and other theaters.
Plus... a war can never be concluded with air strikes alone... unless ground forces are sent in and occupied the land. So it is kind of meaningless to just look at the effectiveness of air defences... what is more meaningful was to see what will happen after air strikes. You cannot just go in and hammer someone using your air power and thats it... then leave. Because once you stirred up a hornet nest, you are bound to get badly stung.
Which is pretty much the conclusion reached before you got stuck in.
