In order to preserve peace, it's better to prepare for war.
The large size of the US military gives Americans undue confidence, even if in reality it may not be as powerful as a better equipped and trained small force.
The root of the problem is low Chinese military spending and a lack of open communication about China's security guarantees. If you speak too much about territorial aggression like Zelensky does, you'll eventually wear out everyone in the global community, but if you speak too little about it, it might project an image that you don't care. Russia went into Crimea because Yanukovych didn't make it seem like they cared. And if there is a risk that America will go into Taiwan, it's because not enough people in China seemed to care.
In short, China needs to make public and condemn American threats, justify a real military buildup in order to match Americans numerically, rally more partners to openly condemn American encroachment, and maybe most importantly, create a public roadmap for national defense, where it is made clear to America how exactly aggression will be punished, from small infractions leading to sanctions to large infractions incurring Chinese countersupport for territorial aggression against NATO.
Despite on paper already being the largest by a small margin, China's economy is deceptively undervalued. Stats such as electricity consumption, goods production and industrial capacity reveals an even more lopsided gap between US and China. Therefore, a porcupine strategy will work well, because there is no way America can out build and out invent China.
