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I couldn't tell you what publication it was but I was thumbing through a British aviation mag at the local Barnes & Noble and there was an article about China's ongoing attempts at modernizing it's combat air fleet. In the article, a Chinese official announced that China was 10 years or so from fielding its own, home-grown gen-5 fighter aircraft. There was a photo of a mock-up and it looked suspiciously like the Northrup F-23.
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Raellus take a look at the following links to see what the Chinese air force is currently flying.
http://www.scramble.nl/cn.htm
http://www.sinodefence.com/airforce/default.asp
http://www.globalsecurity.org/milita...laaf-equip.htm
The best combat aircaft they have is the Russian Su-27SK/Su-30. Barely 20%of their combat airforce would be capable of taking on front-line USAF/USN/USMC fighters, let alone achieving air superiority. How are they going to put a 5th generation aircraft in service within 10 years on their own?
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As I said before, the Chinese are building their military for large-scale conventional conflicts, while the U.S. is not.
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What was the Gulf war, the Invasion of Iraq and ongoing fight against the Taleban in Afghanistan? The US is better prepared than any country for a conventional war.
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Who will be better prepared for a war in the East Asian theatre in 10-20 years? If current trends continue, I'd put my money on the Chinese.
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East Asia is China's back yard, its not America's, so the Chinese have the natural advantage of being there in the first place. However America more than any country is and will be able to send air, sea and land forces to that reason to deter Chinese aggression against countries friendly to America like Japan, South Korea, Taiwan etc.