It's still debatable ? LOL, not even China can put a leash on Indonesia (if they even can since it's a democracy) when they tried to cut into their 9-dash line so that's why the China does not want their neighbors independence because it creates a geopolitical competition ... (If you wanted an example of a "puppet state", you might want to take a look when Japan was occupying Taiwan during WWII) 

What does China get from staying on Vietnam's good side when it's arguably more profitable for them to draft an army to take over Vietnam ? (Vietnam isn't even a NATO country so they don't have to worry about strong allies either siding with them)

Sure there's no connection between Vietnam and the Dalai Lama but both are based upon the theme of independence and how that is threat to China's national security ... 

Taiwan has never claimed independence hence their "One-China policy" stance and they continue with the status quo of being a rogue province not risking the declaration of independence because of mainland China's repeated military threats. Taiwan only disagrees with the CPC being in power since they were exiled during the revolution, they don't want independence. What they want is to be in power again with their own government but Taiwan is getting arrogant when mainland China arguably has the bigger bargaining chip since it's far more powerful ... 

I am of course talking about all the other facets to the American military capabilities like missile defense systems, early warning systems, information gathering... Satellites and so on.

I am not underestimating the devastation that allot of nuclear weapons can cause, but I am not going to overestimate how capable Russia fundamentally is... Because allot of the technology (Submarines and so on) that Russia uses as a launch platform is outdated by several decades.
That does push things in favor of the western world a little bit.

The Iron Dome for instance has proven to be extremely effective.

I'll take a wait and see approach on that front.
But I think China being more capable than either the United States or Europe is an eventual given though. - But more than both? That would be a tall order indeed.

It really depends. (Your link it broken btw.)
I think with the trade war between the USA and China we may see a larger emphasis of manufacturing/trade with India... To early to call anything definitive though.
But it's hard to argue that India has the potential to beat China in almost every facet if it gets it's eggs in a row.

Let's go boys. We need a resetting. Time to test Humanity's tenacity again.

Too bad i am not 10 years old and don't like to play Call of Duty  

We need to set the button so the new world will be more MOE 

We'll probably be dead before we can look too far into the future ...  

China does look highly likely to top both the US and Europe in a little over a decade from now. The biggest obstacle to China dominating both though is their geographic disadvantage so they need more land and resources to make that plausibly happen. Luckily, there is a simple enough path for China to do just that and the solution is to take away their powerful neighbors independence such as Korea, Japan and Vietnam ... (coincidentally enough, none of them are NATO members but the other two have US military bases so China are just waiting for Vietnam to attack them to give the UN an excuse to occupy and annex another region all maybe just to have a stronger claim to the South China Sea) 

China is awfully starting to sound like the eastern version of Britain except this time it sounds like they'll really be playing for keeps instead of slipping up like having their colonies revolt/returned against them or end up in failure like Imperial Japan ... (imagine the thought of another world police but only this time they will be truly twisted since their idea of justice only works for what is right to them) 

Here's the video version of the article that summarizes up things ... 

Actually, I don't think any one nation can emulate the infrastructure that China has in manufacturing. While the demographics do favour India over China, their foundations on the other hand do not ... (so many things that India lacks compared to China such as access to electricity during certain parts of the nation/time, sanitation, access to clean water, less severe poverty, a nearly literate nation, educational standards)

The more likely scenario in that the US does proceed with their trade war, they will just develop automation instead ... (I believe this is also the Chinese corporate direction to avoid the rising wages in their own nation) 

No, it won't since Russia has the most to loose on it. There is something strange about this whole situation that doesn't sit right, but Putin will find other ways to "retaliate". Besides what could he possibly bomb to ignite the war? 

Agreed, a lot can happen that escalate the situation but at the moment I don't see anything pointing towards an escalating conflict other than some harsh wording from both sides. 

I better order 2 million sun block on amazon. Dont wanna have a bad day.

No, by definition proxy wars became a thing after world wars stopped being a thing. Proxy wars were very popular during the Cold War. Remember Vietnam? Korea? Afghanistan (not the recent war, the one in late 70s). These were all proxy wars. Syria now is a contemporary proxy war. A proxy war is a civil conflict fuelled by foreign power interests (in this case USA and USSR, or USA and Russia), who support and fund sides of the civil conflict. There may also be some direct involvement but never against the other power. Like in Vietnam, USA fought the Vietcong, and not directly the Soviet Union. Or in Afghanistan in the late 70s, where the Soviet Union fought the Taliban, and USA funded and trained them against the Soviets. This is what a proxy war is. It is not because the Cold War ended, but quite the opposite it is a kind of war that has flourished ever since the Cold War.