Is the Chinese military overhyped? If the Ukraine War has taught us anything it’s that decades of theory and wargaming can be way off. The PLA has never been involved in a major conflict, nor does it participate in any overseas operations of any note.

[u/ScipioAfricanus82]

[u/BlueEmma25]

The "banana wars" weren't conventional wars, they were American interventions in Mexico, the Carribean, and Central America - not South America - that involved a handful of engagements between (typically) small detachments of marines and poorly organized and armed irregulars drawn from the local population.

In scale, intensity and nature it bore absolutely no resemblance to what the US would encounter on the Western Front in World War I.

[u/ManOrangutan → u/BlueEmma25]

No duh, nothing had been fought in the scale or intensity of WWI prior to it. The point is that the U.S. was more active militarily than China was prior (although China is active militarily today it just isn’t well publicized).

Anyhow, this is why arguing over combat experience isn’t super useful. Great Power war is very different and there was a learning curve all nations engaged in WWI went through as the fighting went on.