Re: What will the 1st PLAN Carrier Battle Group (CBG) look like?
To be true, I personally dun not think that US will risk to go out for a full scale war with China. The reason is very simple, US has too many interest in China in term of foreign direct investment. Japan is too close to risk a war with China as well. In the last great war, Jap was protected from China due to the fact that Chinese had no bombers or ant surface fleet. More importantly, China does not have nukes.
Today, the scenrio is abit different. Jap despite having a more modern air force and navy, but this does not give it a distinct advantge over China. China has the depth to absorb any first strike attack from Jap / US. But it does not hold true for Jap. I am quite sure that chinese leaders are well aware of the hardliners' speech on using Nukes in conflicts with a global superpower. The purpose is to let US know and have a "mutural" understanding.
This speech also serve as a "gentle" reminder for jap, one of China traditional the good fiend. Despite the fact the Jap is trying to build a missile shield, but it would not be possible for Jap a build a effective shield against a saturated attack of 600 short range missiles (some nuclear tipped). Jap will win a surface navy war but at a cost (depending how good the chinese navy perform, hopefully do not repeat the 1895 show again). A war btw China and jap will only result in a win-lose situation. US & Euro (win), China, Jap, Korea, Taiwan (lost).