Infrastructure, not nuclear weapons, sustains US global reach

Are nuclear weapons the main reason China has not displaced the United States as the leading global power?

No; the decisive American advantage is its infrastructure, bases, auxiliaries, replenishment systems, and practiced ability to project conventional power globally.

China's nuclear arsenal makes nuclear weapons an inadequate explanation for continued US primacy. The American advantage lies in the bases, auxiliaries, and underway-replenishment systems that turn national strength into deployable conventional power. British and Commonwealth Pacific planning shows how geography shapes those systems. American forces expected to cross the Pacific, while British forces could move through an established chain of Mediterranean, Indian Ocean, and Asian bases. China possessed substantial power, but its worldwide deployment infrastructure was still under construction. Global reach must be learned, built, and practised because fleet size alone cannot provide it.