The Yuan was around 6.3/USD in 2012.
Again, the fall in share of nominal GDP is only temporary due to much higher inflation in the US and a strong USD due to interest rate hikes, not due to fundamental higher real GDP growth. You're not going to rely on a depreciating Yuan and red hot inflation to outpace real growth in the long term.
The Yuan is not going to depreciate 10% every year and hit 15 Yuan/USD by 2030 or whatsoever.
Japan is in a huge price bubble back in 1995 which affected their competitiveness in international markets.
Japan's nominal to PPP ratio is around 1.9 at its peak in 1995:
View attachment 955558
Which means, price levels in Japan was around 1.9x of the US's back in 1995. For comparison, currently Bermuda has the highest PPP ratio at ~1.2x.
View attachment 955575
Free and open access to global development data
data.worldbank.org
After decades of deflation/currency depreciation, Japan's price level relative to the US has dropped from 1.9 in 1995 to about ~0.7-0.8 in recent years, on par with other developed countries like Germany and France. So deflation in Japan is more like 'normalization' of its price levels relative to the rest of the developed world.
OTOH, China's nominal to PPP ratio is around 0.6. How much 'cheaper' can it get?
View attachment 955562
You can't just plonk Japan's past experience to China without understanding what other fundamental factors are at play. Japan is just too expensive relative to the rest of the world back in 1995, and decades of deflation/depreciation is actually just a normalization of Japan's price levels. It's different for China, which currently has a PPP ratio of ~0.6.
You must be inhaling copium if you think the US can remain its ~$7tril lead simply by getting more expensive or that China will get cheaper every year to make up for the difference in real growth rate.
In fact I see China's inflation outpacing other developed countries in the medium term and reach a PPP ratio of ~0.7-0.8 like other developed countries, as a shrinking labor supply pushes up wages and costs. Gone are the days when China has endless supply of cheap labor working in factories. Like the developed countries, it's natural that more of their youth wants to work in a cushy office job as the economy progresses.