...it'll continue to be seen as a country full of unusually competent peasants who - in economic terms - are useful idiots.

And unfortuntately it will be accurately seen as such.

There is a common mistake people make in thinking that China has integrated itself into the world economy for reasons of the national interest, instead of in the interests of the ruling class in amassing greater wealth.

The whole plan is for China to play second fiddle to the US and for some Chinese people to make a buck out of that. They don't mind being 'useful idiots' as long as there is a buck in it. They will actually be appalled as the US tanks and they have to adjust. And a great many of them will probably not make the imaginative or visionary leap that is required. The US being top dog is what they know. They didn't want it another way, and many will not even be able to conceive of it being another way, even as the whole arrangement falls down around them.