After thinking about this a bit more, one angle is: The State ceases to be a target because "The State" ceases to exist - as a single, ideological and economic unit. And instead fractures into uncountable sovereign collectives on their own private property with their own threat models, resources, and defensive capabilities.
Does China want to invade "The USA"? or does it want to invade "exactly all of N micro-sovereigns in X territorial area - all of which are heterogeneous and hard targets"? Only the former.
