Zenster said:

“China, on the other hand, is cruising straight ahead towards a clash of civilizations identical to Islam, only hundreds of times in magnitude. Again, just like Islam, slapping down China right away could prevent untold future mayhem.”

Unlike with Islamic Fascism, I do not see a clash of civilizations with China. As you probably know, China calls itself the “central kingdom”.
Deep down inside, the Chinese accept as an article of faith that they are the center of civilization. The Chinese certainly respect western technology but to them it’s a no-brainer that their culture is vastly superior to anything else on the planet. They are not interested in conquering us because (except for natural resources) we have nothing to offer them.

However, China for its size is poor in natural resources. It is conceivable that China might take a snatch at a resource rich nation like Australia if China became desperate. However the Chinese are way too smart to go after Australia by direct military means. They’d take Australia over commercially or buy-off Australia’s politicians. History has shown repeatedly that the Chinese are very skilled at nonlinear solutions to complex problems.

Also the notion of “slapping down China” is laughable. One does not slap down China anymore than one would slap down the United States or Russia. China is the proverbial 500 lb. gorilla.

Fortunately, China has a basic weakness:

They like making money.

The United States has convinced China that they’ll make lots of money if they’re nice to us. Creating this situation was extremely intelligent. The trick is to maintain China’s belief that continuing to be nice to us will still make them money. Unfortunately, this will become harder to do as our economy goes down the toilet.