Here's my issue with this line of thinking: It applies to almost anyone.
How many enormous, economically and militarily powerful dictatorships can you name in the world, Dave? Saying it applies to anyone makes no sense at all.
"America relies on us but the moment they have full manufacturing capability, they can launch a bloody war to obliterate us, like they've done to so many others. We must not let them!"
Yes, China is oppressive to their people. Not full on "murder the group we don't like"(with some exceptions) but certainly "1984" ish.
Calling the Chinese government "oppressive" is putting it lightly. They've gathered Uighurs into concentration camps for systematic control and extermination. They continue to deny basic rights to Tibet and its people. They ran people over with tanks until their bodies were turned to a mild paste. Their internet controls and 'social credit score' make 1984 look tame by comparison.
But all we do by doing this is hurt the people who don't give a shit and give them one more reason to not like us. This is the equivilent of breaking someone's hand because you think they'll steal from you. Effective in the short term but it's only going to brew hatred in the long run.
It's not even remotely like that. China is a people who not only have seen the West historically always hating them, but also seen us help the very country that invaded them, raped their people and destroyed their homes only a century ago. Additionally, to China, the mere existence of Taiwan and the continued Western support of it as a nation is an insult (hence why even calling it Taiwan is considered an insult to the Chinese). The Chinese have spent the past decades building up their military, creating outposts in the South China Sea. Building
entire islands out of concrete and turning them into military bases.
This is like having a neighbor who hates you, has hated you for hundreds of years, continues to hate you, swats at you any time you say anything he doesn't like, and continues to stockpile weapons. The moment China becomes powerful enough to defeat a conventional US military is the same moment the West says goodbye to control of the South China Sea. China is the antithesis of nearly all Western values. It's like having the Fourth Reich not only exist, but be your top trading partner. It is boggling to the mind that there are those who not only defend China as a country, but defend an ongoing 'positive' relationship with it. It's a caged, rabid dog that if fed enough by the West will kill us as swiftly as it can.