To be sure, many other nations have risen from utter devastation to rise to great heights (Japan after WW2 is a great example). It remains up to the people to take control of their futures by working hard to make it what they want it to be, and no nation has a monopoly on that simple formula, never in the past, not now, and never in the future.
The main difference between modern day China, rising as it is, and USA, great as it is, remains the closed xenophobic culture of China, and the open and welcoming-to-all culture of USA. Thus, China can never hope to be a leader of the free world with its communist overlords in power. It is as simple as that.
Oh, and those who can be misled by the drivel posted endlessly here by the commiebots are perhaps not worth salvaging anyway. Let them make this mistake, and find out when the time comes what USA is and what it can do whatever it sets it mind to achieve.