While you may be right, past performance could be an indication of their style of cunning and resourcefulness.
For example; the Chinese leased Hong Kong to the British for 200 years. After Britain made Hong Kong and economic powerhouse China retook possession.
The opinion piece indicated that China's overtaking of the USA in economic productivity may be a decade into the future rather than now...not that it wouldn't happen.
Meanwhile, I think China's biggest impending problem is the rapidly growing gender gap. There are just too many boys for too few girls...social unrest is inevitable.
The gender gap will inflate Chinas’ military and guaranee an expansionist foreign policy. CHina seems to have taken complete possession of the Spratley and Paracel Islands in the South China Sea, for instance. The relative overproduction of males will insure that the Taiwan threats continue to ratchet up.
It turns out that China is as capable of short-sightedness as the United States.
Look what its overly stringent birth control policies are bringing.
Social unrest is already happening, though I doubt it has much to do with gender imbalance.