Sometime in the 21st century, probably, it will overtake America's.
China is already the prime focus of American military-strategic planning, and vice versa.
America looted Chinese high culture in the late 19th century, and China pirated American mass culture in the late 20th. Getting to know each other will not suffice to prevent tensions between the two societies. But it's bound to help, if only as a check on both governments' ineptitude and propaganda. After graduating from Princeton and Oxford, Hessler worked from 1996 to 1998 for the Peace Corps. Despite the official auspices, he seems to have gone less as an ambassador of good will than as an aspiring writer.