Yeah, Guest, but what a great missile defence system!

Richard, the US economy is riding upon a fiction...namely that the country is economically healthy and solvent. It isn't. The Chinese could pull the rug out from under the USA, but if they did so they would lose the American middle class customer for all those consumer goods they are filling North America's malls with. So...I'd say it's in the interests of both at the moment to maintain the fiction that the USA is solvent.

Meanwhile, time is on the side of China, and they know it. They're the ones whose economy is modernizing and expanding and they're the ones who are on the upswing. The USA is wasting its talents and its resources on military spending, foreign wars, and high tech weaponry. That's a short-sighted policy which leads nowhere useful.

Interestingly enough, China spends a comparatively higher percentage of its annual budget on defence than most countries...but still a far smaller percentage than the USA does. The USA spends more on the military than all the other countries in the world put together.

And just LOOK at the love and respect it is winning for Americans all over the world! ;-) (that was a joke...)