Military actions (such as Venezuela and Iran) are American-style muscle-flexing.

Massive infrastructure projects (such as transportation, electricity, and communications) are Chinese-style muscle-flexing.
These are two completely different "power projection" logics in the current US-China rivalry.
American military actions are more like surgical strikes emphasizing speed, precision, and deterrence.
Chinese massive infrastructure projects are like a spider web, emphasizing depth, breadth, and dependency.
At the 2026 time node, these two types of power are directly colliding in the Middle East and Latin America.
For example, although the US military captured Maduro in Venezuela, the awkward reality is that a large portion of the local oil production lines and railway facilities are still operated by Chinese companies. The inertia created by this "infrastructure muscle" cannot be immediately erased even by the most elite Navy SEAL teams.
Supporting a new regime and removing the influence of the Eastern powers is also a very slow process, unless the US can come in under the banner of freedom, democracy, and love, and then adopt the state-owned land reform tactics of authoritarian countries.