The US doesn't need its own capital plant to survive a conflict with anyone because it has a military capable of securing all of the resources it needs from anyone else. While China's borders are just China's borders, as far as political control over resources goes, America is effectively borderless due to its unique, global military reach. Unless a country today opts out of American empire by opting out of trade, America's military really does make all other countries mere constituencies of an American polity.
I fully agree with santiago's description of the asymetry of the relationship between China and the US. China has to play by the rules of the game, as set by the dominant power. The US can isolate any country form the rest of the world; no country can do that to the US. Wind power
China's government has the great advantage of being able to conduct policy without particular regard for popular sentiment, and can always play the Chinese nationalism and Han exceptionalism cards to good effect. And they have the advantage of powerful cultural traditions that, well played, bolster the government -- so long as the economy keeps working.
Something from the I Ching relevant to the US-China relation comes to mind:
The Taming Power of the Small
"The yielding obtains the decisive place, and those above and those below correspond with it: this is called THE TAMING POWER OF THE SMALL."*
Subtle and inscrutable these Chinese. The Book of Changes is thought to have taken shape in the centuries before Confucius and is basic to Chinese culture and habits of mind. China will play to its own advantages, which are considerable, when it can, while accommodating US advantages where it must.
For now probably advantage China. They have the currency reserves, a growing economy and the ability to conduct foreign policy strategically, even if they play by US rules. Meanwhile the USA is run by a cabal of pirates and is constrained to act and react according to the short term needs of that constituency. The Chinese undoubtedly think us to be barbaric fools, even if dangerous and powerful fools.
Time will tell just how valuable our military power is in this relationship. But we cannot readily use it to immediately get whatever we want. Most frustrating.
*From the Wilhelm/Baynes translation, Princeton, 1961 As the Dutch said while fighting the Spanish: "It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."
the WestTM plays chess...
