china is not guilty of imperial overreach, and that isn't even what causes the downfall of empires.

empires fall either because they are conquered or because the institutions that support them weaken. it's never because of imperial overreach.

If anything, the "west" is falling. Our religious institutions are weakening, our scholary institutions teach anti-western values, our corporate institutions care more about the global markets than local markets, and our family instutions are being gutted at the core.