The America-worst crowd cheers for China but heres what they forget

One American view of China — increasingly popular on the left and among the hate-Trump crowd on the right — is that the communist colossus will be forever ascendant, boasting astonishing levels of food production, ship construction and industrial output.In this pessimistic view, China will soon replace America as the world’s predominant power.Yet even Beijing’s miraculous 30-year leap out of poverty into first-world affluence is hardly the same as parity with the United States.In truth, President Donald Trump held almost all the cards at last week’s Beijing summit — and will do so again when Xi Jinping visits Washington this autumn.According to nearly every historical measure of power, the United States leads China by sizable margins — in wealth, economic output, fuel, food and military strength.China has roughly four times the population of the US, but produces only about 60% of America’s total GDP.The US is the largest oil and gas producer and exporter in history; China must import 11 to 12 million barrels of oil every day.The United States is also the greatest food exporter in history; China, for all its miraculous increases in agricultural productivity, still must import nearly 40% of its food.US nuclear forces are roughly six times larger than China’s, and its 11 carrier strike groups nearly four times more numerous than China’s three conventionally powered carriers.The United States has more than 100 years of experience in carrier warfare; China has less than 15.American companies, along with NASA, have regained US primacy in space exploration.In new frontiers such as robotics, drones, artificial intelligence, nuclear fusion, cryptocurrencies and bioengineering, a once sluggish United States has rebounded and is reasserting its preeminence.But most important, China is an autocracy.It is superficially efficient, but its technology is ultimately derived from the free and wide-open atmosphere of the West and of the United States in particular....