As long as we are on wild speculation:
So China builds a credible deep-water navy, able to rival the power projected by the US as of 2008. Who says there shall be any will, or even capability, for the US to MAINTAIN a deep-water naval presence in the world, let alone the ability to project by air an injected military presence ANYWHERE?
Consider this - the next “President” of the US may very well be a pacificist at heart (there is certainly no assurance that John McCain would be elected in the present political climate in the US), and call all the US Navy and US ground and air power home. You heard it, just unilateral withdrawal.
Somebody will have to expand into that vacuum. And the most capable and aggressive nation out there would be China. Not because they WANT to, but because they HAVE to. Troublemaker nations like Iran, which the US feels constrained against confronting, will not be cut much slack by the expansionist Chinese, especially if THEIR flow of petroleum from foreign sources is threatened in any way.
If China has bunkers carved back into cliff faces, and shuttles their growing sea power back into the deep recesses while still expanding, the surprise to the world as this fleet bursts out upon the seas would have a stunning effect, much more than parading missiles before a reviewing stand in Tiananmen Square, or an orderly procession of marching soldiers at the Beijing Summer Olympics.
By as soon as 2012, the Chinese may well be able to impose their hegenomy over a much larger swath than they now do in the world. Japan, South Korea and India stand to be vassal states, regretfully unable to do much in terms of trade with the US, and nothing at all in terms of mutual defense.
Well done. Unfortunately very scary as well.