China's propaganda has been pretty effective, but China is much weaker and less consequential than many people imagine.
Its economy is almost entirely dependent upon the export market, its technology is wholly dependent on what it can steal, it has next to no natural resources, and it is in terrible demographic shape.
China is a power because of the sheer number of its citizens and for no other reason.
And those numbers are becoming a serious liability, since China has the oldest population in the developing world.
I believe your assessment of China is a decade out of date.
And while their economy is dependent on exports, they are still a slave nation and in control. The rest of the world depends more on Chinese goods to keep them going than China does on exporting them.