How's that? Because they own space? How does that keep China from invading Vietnam, say? They'll block their Netflix?
How do you suppose the British Empire ruled the world? We ruled the seas. A small island dominating the world because they were the first to master the oceans.

And why do you suppose Britain and France withdrew from Egypt during the Suez crisis? It's because USA told us to. That was the point where the UK finally had to accept that its days as the world's leading power were well and truly over. We realised we can't just go invading other countries without unacceptable consequences. We were no longer in control of our own policy.

They stop China from invading Vietnam by telling them not to, and threatening them with direct consequences that the Chinese would find intolerable. Such a threat needs to be credible. If USA have weaponised space and China have not, then that threat may well be credible enough to succeed.

I think it doesn't matter if they roll over or start a war or implode. It's inevitable the way things are going.
The only thing that's inevitable to me is that USA will not just do nothing while China overtakes them as the leading global superpower.

Can you name one country they installed a friendly government in since WWII that isn't just a corrupt wasteland now?
Chile is a complete wasteland? By South American standards, it's not even corrupt. Chile is the closet thing to a completely civilised nation that South America has. Did USA invade them? Or did you mean to say somewhere else?

And this is besides the point. The reason these places are a wasteland is because the strategy was to incite a civil war, otherthrow by stealth. China won't play out like that, the government have too much control. Overthrowing the Chinese government would require a whole different strategy. Probably outright assassination.

And in any case, you haven't made a case for how the Space Force will enact regime change afaik. I think you're going to need some mind-control space drugs for that.
Which brings me nicely onto this point... assassination from space. Or, better still, maybe control of space removes the need for regime change, since disobedient governments might become more friendly to US interests if USA has such threats.

Yeah cause so much of China's GDP will depend on controlling space. Like at least one-tenth of one percent.
I have no idea what will be important when it comes to space, but one thing I'll guess at in a few hundred years is phosphorous. It's kind of important, and we're slowly running out. A government that is capable of mining phosphorus will rely on space for a great deal more than a piss in a lake.

It will never be the prime factor. This is the same argument people made about the air force in the 1920s. They were saying you could just bomb the other sides' cities to smithereens and they would rise up against their gov't and end the war. It wasn't true then about the air force and it's not true now about the space force.
I started this post asking why Great Britain were such a force for as long as they were. So now let me ask... why are USA the superpower? Well it's not because of their control of the seas. That helps, but their main asset is... drumroll please... control of the air. USA have won wars in the latter half of last century in days by pure aerial bombardment. But control of the air is becoming less important as technology continues to evolve. Space is the future, it's where we'll be mining and it's where the most dangerous weapons will be stored. But that's a long way down the road. In the near future, it'll be a millionaire tourist trap, those times are nearly already here.

We haven't mastered space yet like we've mastered the seas and air. First one to master space is the next superpower, I'd put serious money on it.