doubts about the china story

So let me get this straight ...

The American (and a number of other GB nations) consumer debt binge is essentially over. Consumers have realised most of what they are buying is an 'unnecessary spend'. Meanwhile we all continue to place faith in China to come to our salvation. But the question that begs to be asked for a simpleton like me is how can China recover when most of their productive capacity was geared toward producing things no-one needs? What becomes of these factories? Just where do the Chinese spend their stimulus to generate needs based productive capacity (the only true way to generate real wealth)?

Agriculture? China is already a net importer of almost all the staple foods so this will be an eternal drain on GDP. This will worsen as more Chinese move up the food chain from rice to meat.

Energy? China is a net importer of all the enrgy commodities so yet another black hole in budgets for perpetuity and if you believe in Peak Oil, a black hole that will grow as each year goes by.

Other resources? As a general rule net importing.

Didn't the end of empire in the US ultimately come as a result of a depleted resource base? How does China expect to emulate the rise of America given we are on the depletion side of most resource supply curves? Why would they even want to when it is obvious you cannot sustain the unsustainable?

Too many questions ...