> It feels much more like the Soviet Union collapsed than the US won.
Soviet union just collapsed faster than US. US was in orders of magnitude better shape after WWII. This gave it >5 decades longer slippery slope than USSR had. But it will collapse in a decade, especially if it attempts to go head to head when China takes back Taiwan in 3-5 years.
Don't be so sure. China's military appears to be somewhat hollowed out by corruption. China doesn't have the military experience it would take to invade Taiwan. Taiwan will resist being invaded.
A Chinese attempt to invade Taiwan could end catastrophically for China.
Embarrassingly, not catastrophically. US proved they will do everything in their power to not risk even the slightest provocation of weak russia (because nukes). Even the prepared response to russia nuking Ukraine was supposed to be sinking of Black Sea Fleet - something Ukrainians managed on their own in ~70% by now despite not having operational navy of their own. Do you really think there will be US response to full on Chinese invasion? I can already predict strongly worded letters and condemnation. US doesnt even have nor want to have a base there.
I doubt that's the case. The countries of the world were much less interdependent after WWII than they are today. The collapse of the US will take much of the rest of the developed world with it -- including China.
Yeah the reality is that a lot of people think that prior to and after WW2 and/or the Russian revolution the USSR was equivalent somehow to the US. That was never the case the USSR was a backwater and always behind. Tsarist Russia was a backwards undeveloped slave state. In that light the USSR punched above its weight.
The reality is that rapid industrialization regardless of your ideology is an extreme productive process which magnifies the effects of production which are not in and of themselves free of negative outputs. In USA capitalism like in USSR communism the negative outputs of production are simply ignored and the people who they affect have no choice in what negative effects they must bear and what is being produced.
Soviet union just collapsed faster than US. US was in orders of magnitude better shape after WWII. This gave it >5 decades longer slippery slope than USSR had. But it will collapse in a decade, especially if it attempts to go head to head when China takes back Taiwan in 3-5 years.