No, its not. You only truly win ( end ) a war by ocupying the enemy´s territory. That hasnt changed.
The US had a large military advantage against north vietnam, but they only sent warplanes. If they had also sent troops, they wouldnt have lost the war. Besides, nowadays, modern air defence is very lethal to most warplanes.
It doesnt even have to be a country. A lot of people in central asia dont like china, and some of these countries are politically unstable. China needs to guard this border. It doesnt have to be a large garrison force, but china should be wary.
Russia will align with china as long as putin is in power. After that, who knows whats going to happen? russia in the future could realign with the west, even if that only happens 15 years from now.
Ok. So what happens if for some reason, there is a conflict betwen the US/SK and NK and the US/SK forces advance to the north? what will china do? It seems that they need large forces in that area. I think that some years ago, the NE china region had the largest concentration of PLA land forces. Perhabs its because of that.
But china also needs to have an adequate garrison to guard the border. In case of china entering a conflict of large proportions with the US or india and having to divert large forces to face them, vietnam could be a wild card in china´s borders.
How do you know that? specially in case of a large conflict?
But china still has to properly guard those borders, and in case of a large conflict, these garrison forces becomes forces that cant be used in the conflict. They dont have to be hostile, they only need to be there.
Thanks.