I'd argue that the PLA has the necessary components now to take the fight to CONUS and win decisively, even if that may not be apparent to other observers at present, but anything post-2027 would make that very clear.I think you are doing China a massive disservice attributing everything to mere emotions.
Sure, Japanese brutality during WWII is most certainly a factor. But the far more important ones are it’s unapologetic stance, openly celebrating convicted war criminals, and persistent mask-off comments and actions that makes Beijing convinced that they would invade China in a heartbeat if they think they could actually win.
That, and its geopolitical location and vassalage to America makes it a persistent threat that constitutes a clear and present danger to China all by itself.
The reality is that in the event of a direct war between China and America, America can choose to continue the war more or less indefinitely so long as it has Japan as a base of operations.
The geographical reality is that using Japanese territory, America can always threaten Chinese mainland areas while China will find it far harder to strike to CONUS.
So, in order to totally secure the Chinese mainland from conventional American attack (I’m talking about large scale attacks that can punch through Chinese defences and cause significant damage, not just harassment attacks hoping to slip though defences and cause embarrassment), China needs the ability to stop America from using Japan as one giant FoB. That’s what the PLAN fleet modernisation for the last 20 years have been basically building up to. The sheer quantity of ships, and the fleet makeup is utter overkill for Taiwan, and any talk of invading CONUS is just pure nonsense. But it would be basically what you need to blockade and/or invade the Japanese home islands.