This is a great example, but it ignores entirely that the Chinese subs aren't necessarily of the same caliber (this is the same country that apparently uses several century outdated atomic bombs) and that they're carrying soldiers and more men then usual. Did I mention they're going through hostile waters against the most technologically advanced nation in the Fallout world?
We're dealing with alternate history so I think it's important to try to separate ourselves from RL history. We don't know the level of technology the Chinese are capable of as our only example of their technology in battle is the Yangtze Submarine, the weapons they left behind, and the highly inaccurate
Operation: Anchorage.
I would also question the use of the term "Outdated Bomb" because we do see that the results of the atomic bombs they use are effectively neutron bombs in that they're designed to Cathargian "salt the Earth" and have centuries of radioactive mutated Fallout versus pure destruction. While this is outdated compared to an ICBM, I remind you the US is having Liberty Prime literally THROW their bombs.
Obviously, there's more than submarines being used as the Chinese would need aircraft carriers for their bombers (unless they're some kind of nuclear powered variant which doesn't need conventional fuel). As for hostile waters, the Fall of Europe means that the patrol roots of the US Navy are the only things the Chinese have to worry about.
Mentioning subs being able to go a long distance does not equal large fleets of men doing the same. They can be attacked long before they're near the coast, they can be destroyed and slowed down by other ships, planes and artillery. Your logic is deeply flawed because it equates the success of one sub going through peaceful waters to the destined success of hundreds of ships going through hostile ocean and being open to attack.
Bethesda sure has their claws deep inside you.
They could have been and probably were. Of course, the nature of the conflict is that it is a conflict between militant war-hungry resource-starved expanionist powers deeply involved in ideological power games. Also, that the world was already collapsing into anarchy. Furthermore, the assumption that wise military decisions will be made in times of chaos, paranoia, and global conflict do not reflect history or the human mindset.
As released Soviet documents stated, generals were stunned at the assumption the United States believed a conflict would be a conventional war which escalated to a nuclear one while Soviet plans were first strike with nuclear weapons with no plans for a conventional war.
This shows the Chinese and Americans in this universe were on the same page until the end.
I'm going off to have a couple of shots of Vodka and then kill myself. 