Never underestimate the ability of a totalitarian regime to survive internal disasters (i.e. the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution), and to simultaneously remain a regional and world threat to peace.
You ain’t dealing with Luxembourg.
The Reds are crazy like a fox, a nuclear, blackmailing fox in the henhouse of the Pacific, and you dont’ see anyone strong enough standing up to them.
Scratch the “Big E” from our fleet. Add two more to the Red Chinese Navy. That is not good.
A professor of mine, an old OSS/CIA hand, once told me that “If Red China wants a 100 nuclear scientists, it will produce/get a 100 nuclearl scientists” no matter what else is going on.
Remember that. It is still operational re their power-projection aims and means.
I agree that they are very dangerous and have a lot of capability/potential capability, but they are not supermen. In fact, several trends that supported their rapid growth are running their course. They will have to make major adjustments - if they can.
Demographically, they capped out in 2010 - economic growth will get less of kick from population growth going forward.
They are no longer the relatively low wage provider that they were - new investment is starting to shift to lower cost competitors like Vietnam, the Philippines, etc. Investors also have seen that it is easy to get in, but hard to get your money out - like the Chinese finger trap.
Their banking system is a house of cards with more fraudulent assets than real.
Inefficient State Owned Enterprises have been growing like fungus based on political power, taking over a growing share of the economy.
They are accumulating enemies, and a growing regional consensus sees them as a threatening bad actor.
They have a bunch of ethnic minorities that they have atrociously abused (Tibetans, Uighurs, etc.). They have a bunch of Han Chinese that they have atrociously abused. (most of them). They have riots pretty much every week somewhere in the country.
Corruption is monumental - the average Congressman-equivalent in China is worth $100 million (US). The top guys are multi-billionaires. They run the place like mafia families.
Their rampant abuse of WTO rules is developing a growing consensus to crack down on their unfair subsidies, barriers to entry, theft of intellectual property, currency manipulation, dumping to bankrupt competitors (e.g. rare earth mineral production), and so on.
They can’t grow on forever they way they did. Most likely, growth will slow to more modest rates. Quite possibly they could take some hard setbacks, like the recent 1/3 drop in the aggregate value of their real estate - a faster and further drop than the US housing crisis.
Chinese have a different approach towards gov then we do. In China to enter political office one has to be a member of the Communist Party and pass the Civil Service Exam. The Exam insures that the individual at minimum can read, do math, possess basic knowledge in military strategy, economic principles, etc, etc, etc. Leaders are groomed based on their performance in lower positions and projects. The Chinese gov system is more like a corporation then a gov. China’s problem is nepotism and corruption. At Main Street level, Maoist China had the least corruption compared to the current free market China. That is why there is a yearning for Maoism.