Every known major empire in history killed itself from lack of modernization, and/or costly military forays it couldn't afford. These war fantasies are typically executed by a leader desperate to hold on to power by galvanizing the populace against a fabricated external threat.
The battle with China has already been lost. China owns the places raw materials come from, the plants that process them, the factories that build the finished products, and the boats that send them to the US.
You cant muscle the dealer when youre the fiend.
Already lost? Not even close. China faces real structural constraints right now… including an aging population, high levels of debt, strict capital controls, environmental degradation, and heavy reliance on foreign energy and export markets. These factors limit its long term flexibility and make sustained dominance more difficult af.
The claim that China owns everything that matters is absolutely false. China controls scale… especially in manufacturing and processing.. but it does not control the most valuable choke points in the global system. US and our allies continue to dominate advanced semiconductors, global financial systems and capital markets, critical software ecosystems, intellectual property and technical standards, and reserve currency status. In modern power dynamics, control of bottlenecks and high leverage nodes matters more than sheer production volume.
The addiction metaphor also oversimplifies the relationship. It frames the US as powerless, when in reality the dependence runs both ways. China depends on U.S. consumption, access to advanced technology, and a stable global trade system just as much as the U.S. depends on Chinese manufacturing. That mutual dependence creates leverage on both sides.
Jobs everywhere.
