>>Whereas China was an ally, HAS the bomb, HAS space flight, HAS the manpower for sure.
>
>The chinese space program is a rip off of the Soyuz program. http://www.space.com/news/china_russia_991122.html
>Despite this, they are still 50 year behind.
>
>Their nuclear program was given to them by the Soviets.
>http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/china/nuke/
>
>Their Navy isn't fit for the open seas.
>
>China is a 3rd rate power but with tons of people.

Yup.
You may be too young to remember when "Made in Japan" was a joke. Things broke as soon as you wound (of the wind variety, not the hurt variety) them, boxes were brittle cardboard that fell apart, etc. Things change fast.
Shanghai has grown from 8 million to 20+ million people in under 20 years and will be 30+ million by the end of this decade.
Manufacturing is concentrating in China.
The U.S. used to be the manufacturing centre of the world and we saw the impact of that especially during WWII. China may already be past that!

My belief is that China is getting itself poised to become THE world power and we all have to hope that it exercises the prudence that was the characteristic of U.S.