“Why not do what we did with the Soviets? Have them spend themselves broke!”
Because the tables are reversed now, as China has a larger economy than us. And now they have their US administration in place. It’s really up to China as to whether they want to manage their ascension to top dog peacefully or not.
The US didn’t have the stomach to do what was necessary (lock up local commies) when it counted, back in the 60s and 70s, so we lost.
China does not have the larger economy. Ours is roughly twice the size when population numbers are factored as the should be when making comparisons of this kind.