I see potential disaster, especially between two nations that are economically linked at the hip. But that usually does not matter to those who seem to be in a perpetual state of looking for conflict.
Actually, we are not as "joined at the hip" as you might think.
The main thing China is known and used for is essentially cheap labor. They are the modern version of Mexico post-NAFTRA, or Japan post-WWII.
However, unlike Japan, they are not an originator nation. Even before and after WWII, Japan was already known for it's electronics, industrial, and optics capabilities. Among camera buffs, some of the finest lenses in the world come from Germany and Japan. For a small nation, they were building ships and aircraft that were dominating the US in the early stages of the war. And they had created some highly sophisticated code machines that we largely broke through a combination of luck, and their own hubris that they were unbreakable.
Now these are actually advantages that China does not have. To begin with, they are not an "originator nation" when it comes to technology. Sure, they are making computer chips and GPS devices and cell phones, but notice who actually is designing these items. The US, Germany, Japan, and other countries. They are simply paying China to make them. Well, here is a news flash, before the mid 1990's, those same things were being made in other countries, and could easily move right back again in the future.
The relationship between the US (and other countries) and China is not correctly called "linked at the hip", it is more accurately "parasitic". The world provides China with the plans and raw materials, they manufacture the items (designed mostly by somebody else), then ship that finished produce for sale. It's only appeal to the consumers of the world is simply that it is cheap.
In the 1970's, Japanese Electronics took a giant leap, and quickly became the wonder of the world. Their ability of Muntzing led to a revolution, where less parts were needed to do the same thing. Their then acceptance of semiconductors (faster then the US did) caused them to leapfrog us again in things like pocket calculators. Sure, a US made HP calculator could do advanced mathmatics that before required a slide rule to do, but it cost $600. All most people needed was something to ballance a check book at a $50 price range.
And Japan could do that not because it copied what was made in other countries, but they actually designed their own items. Reducing the part count not because they lacked the technology to make the more expensive parts, but as a way to reduce cost, but only if it was not at the expense of quality.
The first US transistor radios required a now obsolete battery, the 22.5 volt Type 412. 2 years later a company soon to be renamed SONY released a new transistor radio, with the 9 volt battery we still use today. And their cameras and lenses were still revolutionary, even into the digital era.
China has none of that level of origination of ideas. If we cut them off (or they cut us off), it hurts our economy for a while as we look for new sources of labor. But it cripples them, as they have lost their #1 export destination and one of their major labor contractors.
And the main reason we stick with them is generally the prohibitive taxes involved in returning "overseas money" into the US.
