[throwaway729]

Yes. Two give the two most relevant and potent examples:

ABCD in Japan prior to ww2.

Chile prior to Pinochet. Chile is agriculturally rich but suffered food shortages none the less.

Neither is exactly this scenario but there are enough similarities to suggest likely outcomes. People don't typically "toughen up and deal with" severe and abrupt changes to availability of common household items, and even countries with the potential for self sufficiency often have painful transitional periods.

[seanmcdirmid]

In many of our lifetimes, see the Oil crisis in the 1970s when the ME embargoed the west. Go read up on that, it worked out well for the west and bad for the ME. People were pissed about having to wait in line for gas...for awhile...and carter lost re-election, but there were no angry people in the streets.

So ya, we do toughen up, and no, china doesn't have much leverage over the west at all, even less than the Middle East.