Why does the US and the west think that China can never surpass it?

They have their heads stuck up their asses. Now if Trump is successful, then at least short term. The would be right. China has bet the bank on being the worlds manufacturing base, if Trump manages to level things out, others will follow that lead, China will have to go in a different direction. If they do not pivot quick enough, then India will overtake them. If the US does not do something about the tech being outsourced to India, then they may very well take the lead. They have their entire country focused on education, especially in tech, we can already pay 9 of them to one of ours. Same thing, different industry, the money s still flowing to them and tech, software, is here to stay.

Dictatorship

Corrupt

Demographic problems

Running out of water

Many experts think China will have the biggest economy in the world in 10 to 20 years. They already have the largest army.

China will not surpass the United States because of its demographics ... more accurately, its aging demographics. The US actively imports people (immigrants) which will minimize the crunch of our retiring baby boomers over the next 10 years. China does not import people. In addition, the Chinese economy is supported by credit ....a mountain of credit that makes the US debt look like a mole hill to Mount Everest. One more item, the industrialization of China has caused a surge in their middle class, which is starting to demand higher wages. When labor costs in China "normalize", all that cheap crap we currently buy from China will come from Mexico or South America. It's not politics or foreign relations, it's numbers, hard numbers, demographic and economic numbers.