In my opinion, that boat has already left the dock. And it will be a slow boat to China fer sure.

Much of the manufacturing clout that China has is geared to mass production. This has allowed them to price competition into the ground a la Walmart.

Now China can start focusing on a domestic market and a burgeoning middle class. The Asian populations have been seeing quite the rise in standard of living and that will only serve to grease the economic engines of the far east for decades to come.

The US dollar WILL get left behind, but while the spending power of all the US money that China has is still good, they are buying whatever they can. Some countries, like Angola, are dependant on Chinese investments in their economies, and will be repaying China through there natural resources (copper and oil).

The Chinese have made themselves into an economic superpower, now the rest of the world will just have to deal with that.

Rant finished..... :)