Thanks for the response, agreed on the definition of "pain tolerance."

I do think that the US population is able to bear incredible levels of pain if it's packaged a certain way. Examples:

-20 year Global War on Terror which cost $6T+

-Healthcare costs which far outstrip other western nations, mostly paid for out of pocket, and which increase every year

-Opioid Crisis which killed more people than all our 20th century wars combined

-Lack of workplace protections, time off, etc which our peer nations enjoy

The Chinese have not dealt with any of these things, so yeah, they have more available capacity to manage new social disruptions. That said, Americans love war, so we could probably add another war without disrupting things too badly.