Pretty much right on. The export industry now supports millions of Chinese with a standard of living the old central planning Communist system could never do. Those in this growing middle class do not wish to go back and be peasants again, and Chinese leaders know it. That’s why they are despearate to find new export markets like Africa, and why they cannot afford a trade war with the US that will instantly cause internal tension to rise.
They need US more than we need them.
Not onlt that, but now China will not be able to afford military expansion. We have been funding their military build up for decades.