How does China pose a conventional military threat to Europe?

They're not going to invade Europe. Why would you go there as your first response?

Unfortunately, the U.S. is withdrawing from exactly that sort of geopolitical exercise of power, and ceding the entire field to the Chinese right now.

Wrong. You don't like what the US is doing because Trump is saying what needs to be said to our european allies. And you're forgetting that the Chinese are building a blue water Navy as fast as they can...with plenty of ports to call on around the world.

My statements are concerning general military readiness (especially the lack thereof) among our european allies. This board keeps braying on about the "importance of NATO" while blithely ignoring the fact that there are more planes in the United States Marine Corps than in several entire european countries.

Rather than a conventional military threat, China poses a broader global geopolitical threat through its efforts to gain political and economic advantages in strategically important areas across the globe

They're doing both. They intend to displace the US as the world's lone superpower and put weaker countries under their thumbs. Europe has been slow to react and generally blind thus far.