It probably doesn't need armies, no. But it does need a navy to keep the sea lanes open. Having mineral concessions does you no good if every other ship you send to fetch your ores gets hijacked on the way back.

That's a real service that America provides, and one that China cannot rapidly replace (in part because building up the capacity to replace it would be viewed as an unfriendly act by pretty much everyone else on the planet).

- Jake

Friends come and go. Enemies accumulate.