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.

Chinese employees get less time off and many of them got less workplace protection.

The availability to good healthcare for many conditions in China is quite subpar compared to the US. They don't have many physicians. Their healthcare outcomes in most things are worse than those for Americans. Good example is their lung cancer morality rates.

Of course both these things are expected for a much poorer country.