The American/NATO army is really plagued by similar issues brought to it by the people they inherited from the Reich.
They don't tolerate failure and therefore planning for failure is taboo.
They're too propagandized, thinking that they're inherently smarter, more capable of taking initiative, etc than a bunch of slavs/asians. Unlike the nazis, they won't admit it openly, but this type of thinking has wormed its way into the military because of the government's political control. Ironically, it makes themselves rigid, to the point where their armored formations could get encircled by infantry in wars like Korea.
Because of this, once things start going poorly, low level commands start covering up failures by vastly exaggerating gains and enemy losses, deceiving high level commands about the true situation on the ground.
Finally, but perhaps most damming, the government's denial of corruption, propaganda painting corruption as a phenomenon that cannot happen within the superior American spirit, they have surrendered unconditionally in the war on corruption. How can you battle something which you refuse to see?
These factors are why I believe the American threat is really much smaller than it looks like.
Remember how Americans despite what the official govt says about their patriotism, they didn't even want to be drafted to fight Vietnam, in a war that's way way less dangerous.
China merely needs a push that decisively shows superiority over the US forces, and US won't have a plan to deal with it aside from coping and blustering. Something like, sinking 2-3 aircraft carriers, shooting down most of the US GPS network and putting long range missiles on Taiwan East coast. When US soldiers realize they're not going on a safari to kill dirty communists from safety, that they're in fact the ones being shot at like fish in a barrel while their command requires them to rush into PLA kill zones, they'll crumble en masse. In fact, highly likely that once USA catches wind that the above is going to happen, they will preemptively save face by withdrawing from Asia before China even fires a single shot.
Of course, betting on a morale break would be negligence on the part of the PLA, so the buildup should still assume that USA will one day attack using full force, that USA military command is as competent as the PLA, that US soldiers are equally professional etc. But just given the absolute joke of corruption within the States, the constant issues they have with overly optimistic reports, it paints a very unflattering picture of how well they will do in modern war.
