The Chinese base in Djibouti for example, is larger than the US base there.
What the US misses is that China doesn't necessarily want a fleet of expensive (and very vulnerable) carriers floating around. It would much rather have islands and coastal bases around important choke points. Sure, the price you pay is force projection, but the benefit is that it's a much more sustainable military.
PLANs has conducting antipiracy missions in gulf of Aden for over a decade now. Their bread and butter frigate type 54 has done port visits across the world. Most 2016 modernization has massively increased UNREP / auxillary fleet. PLAN has enough hulls and capabilities to protect at least her shipping, there's simply no reason to while uncle Sam foots the bill.
Looks like the US and China import about the same quantity of oil. That doesn't contradict what you said, but I think it does diminish its significance.
Importing oil doesn't necessarily say anything about use. The US imports a lot of oil to refine and then export as petroleum products. Countries don't just burn crude oil in a giant bucket to keep warm.
The Chinese base in Djibouti for example, is larger than the US base there.
What the US misses is that China doesn't necessarily want a fleet of expensive (and very vulnerable) carriers floating around. It would much rather have islands and coastal bases around important choke points. Sure, the price you pay is force projection, but the benefit is that it's a much more sustainable military.