China is building a sizable regional military-naval capability that can perhaps dominate the East Asian Region.
In contrast the US, with diluted global strategic capabilities covering extra-regional Europe, the Americas and Middle East may not have enough usable conventional forces to beat/deter China. The US's vast NUCLEAR superiority over China is unusable in a regional war.
Absorbing Taiwan is a tailor-made "Patriotic" conflict for Xi to distract ordinary Chinese from China's increasing economic and social problems. These problems threaten the Social Contract that justifies continued CCP rule.