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Could the US conquer and occupy China? Probably not. It's too big, and too diverse. As a nation, we are much more "together" than they are. Over the centuries, most anybody who has tried to conquer China has ended up being assimilated, and eating with chopsticks.
Could we cripple their military, and render them unable to effectively fight? You bet. They could still pose a threat to anyplace they could march to, but not beyond that.
So, if you define "beat" as rendering them unable to effectively harm us very much, it's a no-brainer: We could. If you define "beat" as to overthrow their government and occupy their countryy, I doubt it very much.
The "2,000 casualty" argument is ridiculous. In WWII, a loss of 2,000 men in one day would make the newspapers. How many casualties we will tolerate depends a lot on what we are fighting for.
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