alt Hacker News> they have excellent air defenses so it seems unlikely someone with superior planes is going to be able to go in and bomb them into submission.
You seem to believe that China's military ambitions are purely defensive, but that is not the case. They have grandiose expansionist ambitions which include basically the entire South China Sea - which in spite of its name is shared by many countries. Not to mention their explicit goal of eventually conquering Taiwan. Their military doctrine is fundamentally offensive and does require air power.
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mohamedkoubaa • today at 1:06 PM
Given a generous enough definition of "defensive", maybe
But interestingly their ambitions are "local". This has a large impact on the machines and materials required.
In other words, let's says the Chinese military jet engine is 15 years behind is say fuel economy. Which reduces range. If the conflict is local that doesn't matter overmuch.
Equally operating from land, not carriers, reduces reach, but if what you want to reach is local then that doesn't matter.
If China has military ambitions (and despite the sabre rattling there's no overt indication of that), they are all in a specific area.
By contrast the US likes to participate in, or instigate, actions far from home. Moving planes means long open-ocean ferry flights. Single-engine reliability, range, effeciency and so on is paramout.
Equally the US relies on friendly local countries to provide support bases, logistics, fuel and so on. As evidenced just this year, that support can be withdrawn. Will Japan or Korea want to be dragged into a US / China conflict over Taiwan?
So if the Chinese are operating engines later than the first gulf War, and on par with the second, I'm not sure that's a defining difference.
The US doctrine of air-defence suppression followed by air superiority may not be possible in a space near the Chinese mainland.