no, not compete with china historically, the chinks were not all that great at warfare - naval or otherwise. they are very good at stealing other people's ideas and making money. the last time they had a military adventure, they invaded north vietnam. they got lost 20km from their own border and then got completely fucking annihilated by the n. vietnamese forces the only ones who can pull off a combined arms invasion of a landmass or run a carrier group efficiently is the us. yes, the brits and french can do it - but we've been doing it for 70 years at this point. it takes 3 years to build an aircraft carrier, and another 3 to 5 to train up a crew to be competent on it. not "efficient" - just competent.  the chinks are much much better at subversion, thievery, cheating and making money - legitimately or otherwise - than fighting.  that said, i think it is truly pathetic an expensive salvage vessel (it was not a warship) was handed to a dei hire. expensive lesson. i hope the lesson was learned but the cynic in me says it wasn't.
United States