1971 People's Republic of China replaces Republic of China (expelled) as the permanent member on the UN Security Council
1972 Richard Nixon visits China.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Chinese_history
Tonight I read a chilling article from the Dec. 13, 2004 Wall Street Journal: "Beyond the Rim" by Mark Helprin
http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/mhelprin/?id=110006021&ojrss=frontpage
China is focused on war in space, the oceans, and the ether; America on sea, air and space. America is intent on "reordering the Islamic world, the most inconvertible of all divisions of mankind." This is a gift to China, along with "a persistent blindness in regard to China's probable trajectory."
"...America's vision has been knocked out of focus by its ideals, and when China does develop the powerful expeditionary forces that it will need to protect its farflung interests, the U.S. will probably have successfully completed transforming its military into a force designed mainly to fight terrorism and insurgencies"
Some books to shed some light on how we got to this situation with China:
Edward Timperlake, William C. Triplett II, Year of the Rat: How Bill clinton Compromised U.S. Security for Chinese Cash, Regnery, 1998.
Edward Timperlake, William C. Triplett II, Red Dragon Rising: Communist China's military threat to America, Regnery, 1999.
Bill Gertz, The China Threat: How the People's Republic Targets America, Regnery, 2000.
Gordon Thomas, Seeds of Fire: China and the Story Behind the Attack on America, Dandelion Books, 2001.