And we've got a long list of failed authoritarian states

Degrade their ability to fight back, using your supporter base and what power you have, then force them to conform or disappear.

And I've got a long list of working ones.

What's your point?

No you don't

The ones currently operating are hardly "successful".

China?

China is not successful. It's a bloated economy based purely on an export bubble

An economy which is soon to overtake the American one?

They're hurting like hell due to the economic sanctions imposed on them by the U:S

With nearly double the population?

The U.S could kill china with one single trading embargo

And a government with basically supreme control over every aspect they want.

*Right*

Yet they haven't, because they can't.

Now we're talking fantasy as you mentioned earlier.

They haven't because China is mostly a nuisance at the moment. Not an actual threat.

If you believe that, then you're deluded.

I see that you don't really have the insight of what the Chinese economy is built upon.

China is the biggest threat to A. America and B. The West.

They're spreading their influence around the world like wild-fire

Debt diplomacy is working for them very nicely in Africa.

Influence backed by the American economy, because the Chinese are still allowed to hawk their cheap crap to american customers. Therein lies their problem

They have a near monopoly on rare earth metals.

Good luck producing all those fancy phones when you can't buy the raw resources for them.

You can't pose a threat to the U.S if you're indirectly dependant on the U.S customer base

Something which is rapidly changing

A. The American customer base dependency and B. The export focus.

No it isn't. As the recent trade war has clearly shown where the Chinese yuan is dropping in value much faster than the U.S dollar is.

China is moving away from mass-exports for the very reason you said.

If China was "overtaking" the U.S economy, it would've been the other way around.

No, not at all.

They're moving away for the very reason you mentioned earlier.

They want stability, first and foremost.

https://seekingalpha.com/article/33576-chinas-new-economic-model-moving-away-from-export-led-growth

"Joseph Stiglitz, the Nobel laureate in economics (who was a professor at Stanford during my Stanford years) says in his new article "World has much to learn from China's new economic model" that China is employing a "new economic model" to move away from export-led growth that other East Asian countries have pursued. China recognizes that things that worked in other countries may not be suitable to China's unique situation. "

"They're moving away". I don't care. They haven't moved away yet. Their economy is still grossly dependant on cheap mass exports. Whatever cute plans the chinese might have will not help them TODAY.

They started this in around 2011

And your argument "we could cripple China by doing X", I don't care about that

Yeah and their projects necessary to make this economic shift will take decades.

Because it's not realistic.