The 21st Century Satan

[Furious Mental]

"I thought large-scale wars between industrialised nations were kind of passé these days "

There has never been a war between nuclear powers, unless you count the Sino-Soviet border conflict, which I don't because it was just a series of clashes and in any case given that China only tested an IRBM that year its nuclear deterrent was pretty dubious. This is because a war is likely to escalate to the point where the two sides wipe eachother out with nuclear weapons, making the costs of the war greater than any potential benefit. The idea of military expansion isn't to start a war with other nuclear powers, it's to make them accept some sphere of influence, which no doubt China would want to include the Yellow, East and South China Seas. However I can't see that happening because the credibility of the US govt depends so heavily on the commitments it has made to South Korea, Japan, the Phillipines, and, of course, Taiwan, to maintain the military balance in the region. On top of that keeping control of the Malacca Straits is something of a trump card.