Except it already has? If you look at non-financialized GDP, China outstripped the U.S. back in 2017 and has only gotten larger, with better manufacturing capabilities and shipping industry, COVID policies or no. They just aren't going to seek a nuclear or any war exchange because why stop and change things when you are already winning? The biggest concern for them atm is making deals with third world countries to offload excess construction bids as their local economic demands slows and facilitate resource extraction, which they are still committing to a far more ethical game plan than any other world power (which is why they remain popular most in under-developed countries), and making sure the U.S. doesn't interfere militarily to disrupt those processes or make it prohibitively expensive. Perhaps it will come to a head eventually, but if it does, the U.S. is far more vulnerable than it appears because it has been cost-cutting labor and down on recruitment for the last three decades. The tech is there but there is no one to man it.

I get that dooming is fun, but seriously, have some actual perspective.