Good discussion here CLM and all. You state:"China or should I...

Good discussion here CLM and all.

You state:
"China or should I say Asia could effectively do without the US altogether given the fullness of time?"

There is one huge reason that China would at this point not willingly pull the rug out on the US. Food security is the issue I'm thinking of. This year China imported 45% of its soybean imports from the US (42% from Brazil), 43% of its wheat from US (39% from Australia) and 11% of its corn imports from the US.

Given that the area of arable land is shrinking in China, and its very low water resources per head of population, the trend of reliance in food imports is set to increase. China effectively imports 14% of its water needs by importing soybeans, as it takes 1500 tonnes of water to produce 1 tonne of soybean. Brazil may take over prime exporter of soybean to China at some stage as it develops further agricultural capacity, but China is still very reliant on the US for now.

My thoughts are that despite China's capacity to economically undermine the US it would not be in its interests to intentionally do so.