Sitting on a train in China

In 1991 my husband was sitting on a train in China.
His work took him there often.
He and his traveling companion were sitting in a car with two mid grade Chinese officers.
Before you think that is unusual, 
everyone in China is in the Army
until they are dismissed (usually around 60).
If you figure on one tenth of the population could travel in those years, and one tenth of the middle aged men were officers in the military. That makes about 60 million officers (Our entire military is 1.3mil)
Ok, you get the idea.

The conversation was fascinating enough for him to come home to me and relate it back. Let's start at the beginning.
China's symbol for itself is a box with a line through it
China is the center of the world.
China was still relatively poor at that point. They had limited their population and taken the best and brightest to their cities to educate them. Still, it was not unusual to see the majority of the population out in the fields harvesting rice or potatoes. 

There was a plan a foot to get to that center once again. 
They figured that they could not beat us militarily, but could economically. 

And so the discussion
How to beat the US economically.

They knew they could manipulate their own currency.
They also knew that they could make the US/Western companies, who wanted cheap labor and  pollute their land (instead of their own), give them everything they wanted to make a buck.
 They knew that they could depend on the grace of the US to educate many of their top people.They also had watched the droning of Japan with PacMan and Tetrus and knew they could do that other places. Placate the masses. 

Hummmm. And right there they began discussing China 2025. Did these two Americans think it would be possible to manipulate the US into believing China just wanted to grow and not take over?
Did they think this was possible?
Of course, our men told them, no way. 2025? That was SOOO far away. 

My husband left that all behind when he retired the first time.
But his traveling companion continued in the field
and worked in and around China for the next 20 years. 

Fast forward to 2016 election time. Our friend was sitting on our couch, stating that the US was no longer a leader in the world, but a follower. His think tank was full of proof. 
The Chinese had exploited their way through Africa and Western Asia- enslaving in many ways- by paying off oligarchs of every country. Human rights were being ignored by the "free world" because it was the cost of doing business. 
He was still in a bit of shock that the US had become so dependent on China to build some of the most sophisticated technology, but that was capitalism. Even more so  the Western world had signed a treaty that would give China ten more years to pollute even more so they could get their policy done. They had even purchased many corporate farms in the bread basket of our country.
He was explaining how that conversation-so many years ago- was now China policy. And China 2025 was a reality.
He was sad that our country would be much like England.- a power of the past. But we would be fine. China really doesn't want to be in charge of the low people. Just go with the flow.
Our friend had been "gloated to" and 2025 was a "go" since Hillary was a shoe in.
And then the election happened.