[AnimalMuppet]

Unless they're going to swim or row, those 700 million humans who could fight if needed don't do much in a naval war.

The risk is, if the Chinese pick a naval fight and their navy gets pummeled, it's a PR disaster. That's a risk for the leadership, not so much for the country.

[dm2]

That's 700 million potential factory workers, military support staff, and soldiers, and the factories are already built, US companies paid for many of them.

[curiousjorge]

so what does that have to do with naval warfare? You going to build thousand islands on sand during wartime?