China is probably going to have a military to rival the USA within a couple decades; certainly their industrial base dwarfs ours already. I worry about how we will respond to that fact, the idea that America is number one and cannot ever be contested is very deep in our culture. We would probably not accept the fact that we actually do have to compromise with China at this point. On the positive side though, I don’t see China waging wars of conquest anytime soon as they see themselves as the Middle Kingdom and the most important part of the world already.
China will NEVER have a military that can challenge America. It is unlikely that still be a unitary country in 2030. For most of the 20th Century, China was ruled by Warlords. Xi has guaranteed that the CCP will die as he has removed any moral authority the CCP had. China will get old before it gets rich.
TL:DR China will break up due to an aging population.
China has 4 times our population and has been a unified country for most of the last 4000 years; they have a homogeneous population and a long long history of a Chinese identity, and were the worlds biggest economy and military power for most of that time. The last two centuries have been an aberration due to the fact that Europe figured out capitalism and the use of fossil fuels before the rest of the world. TLDR; china will overtake the us imminently and this will be a reversion to the historical norm
