One very important issue that is not touched on in this article is China’s rapidly aging population. She is creating more debt burden for her future population which will be smaller. I have said repeatedly on FR that managing China’s decline will be much harder than managing her ascent...
As for managing China's descent, it will lead to the breakup of the country. The prosperous region would refuse to carry the burden of propping up economically backward region when they themselves are struggling. Some regions would fare OK while other parts of China could be hit with severe economic problems.