Another thing is Americans have very little understanding of their own history; particularly how America went through the same type of tumult as China in its ea

Another thing is Americans have very little understanding of their own history; particularly how America went through the same type of tumult as China in its early economic development. Financial crises were the norm (and still are) and it was a wild place with loads of corruption and vast ungoverned / autonomous regions. Yes, soon China will have a financial crisis. It will have to undergo restructuring and debt forgiveness. It isn't going to evaporate from the earth. As an interesting side note, the US has the largest shadow banking sector (as % of all financial assets) in the world: https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/gfsr/2014/02/pdf/c2.pdf https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/gfsr/2014/02/pdf/c2.pdf