Well, I guess we'll have to see. Is China a threat, sure. How do they compare to the threat of the Soviet Union?
There were some who wanted to trade with the Soviets. We should trade and help the people of the Soviet Union they said lest we play into the hands of the Soviet hardliners.
We did not trade, the Soviets remained a nuke threat and they financed proxy wars as they encouraged their "wars of liberation" (Viet Nam for example).
They had no real economy. They collapsed. We won.
Much was said about how President Reagan drove them into bankruptcy. Their economy could not support a military to match ours.
I believe that that is reasonably accurate. Our trade is of great value to the Chi-coms militarily IMO.
MAD helped stop the probably of nuke war with the Soviets.
The Chi-coms, from Mao to this day, have always posed a simple question, "We can afford to lose [insert population of U.S. here], how many can you afford to lose?"
IMO the Chi-coms saw what MAD did to the Soviets. IMO they will not back down.
They will support all our enemies like the Soviets did but they have the resources. The Soviets tried to get into our hemisphere but failed except for Cuba. They just did not have the resources. They could barely afford Cuba.
The Chi-coms apparently are doing much better on all fronts plus unlike the Cold War days there is no stigma to being pals with Chinese Communist tyrants.
IMO.