I think this is overestimating the importance of GDP and underestimating the importance of real goods. The US' GDP may be higher, but in times of upheaval like is being discussed things like patents on Chinese-manufactured goods and our massive financial industry won't be as practically valuable despite driving GDP up significantly.

The article acknowledges this to some extent and expects the US to be able to pivot but fails to recognize how close China is to being able to do the same. Things like DeepSeek and BYD cars have shown that the gap is not as wide as traditionally thought.

5-10 years ago decoupling would have had a much bigger impact, but the threat has been looming this entire time, giving China plenty of time to prepare.