China is certainly a power to be reckoned with, but by no means are they a superpower. If you look at the most recent weaponry and manpower reports appearing on sites like GlobalSecurity and StrategyPage, it looks like the huge bulk of China's army is pitifully ill-equipped and terribly undertrained. Yes they technically have a large number of men under arms, but most of these units are a long ways from being combat-ready. A large number of Chinese troops are primarily farmers - falling back on the old Mao-revolutionary model - that raise the crops to feed the troops. Yes they have uniforms and rifles, but may be unsure of which to point at the enemy.
They do have nuclear weapons, but fewer than France. They have a small ballistic missile capability, but few long range weapons. China is caught like most of the rest of the world in being prepared for the last war and not the next one. For fifty years they - like most of us in the West - were trained, equipped, and deployed to meet a threat from the Soviet Union. They concentrated on large land forces, preferring to meet the perceived threat with WWII technology and sheer weight of numbers. They would be difficult to beat in a war of attrition. Now the threat seems to be refocusing on Taiwan, which will require a devastating first strike capability and massive, if unsophisticated transport. That's just not available right now.
China also has problems in the ranks. Most senior officers have become mini-warlords, and have become more focused on their own fiefdoms than their national mission. That would spell trouble in any national mobilization. Could they suck it up and become a world-beating army? Probably not, at least in the short term. Given the economic revolution that is underway in China, they are probably better off maintaining the status quo and letting the world fall into their lap.
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