This may be & I have read many of your posts and have agreed with most. But I disagree with you totally, the Chinese are sneaky little B@stards & have our destruction in mind with every new weapon they acquire or build. They have strategically taken over the Panama Canal & never miss a chance to show us up or stand in our way. It's not that I want you to be wrong, I wish that you are right , but somehow I doubt it.
Being "sneaky" will not help them in the event of a nuclear laydown. And in that event, they do not have the wherewithal to prevail--the most the can do is blow up some US urban centers (and a sufficiently cold-blooded assessment might conclude that this can only help the US).
China has serious economic (and, ultimately, political) problems, tied to the structure of their economy. Being "sneaky" won't help them there, either. You cannot finesse your way around economic collapse.
China is going to go down for the count before 2020, whereupon they will have the good ol' days of warlords and bandits squabbling over who owns the next hill. They won't give a damn about owning the Panama Canal after that.
BTW, if you're so damn worried about the Chinese "owning" the Canal through Hutchinson Whampoa, why don't you organize a hostile takeover effort? They are publicly traded, after all.