First off you need to fast forward to the 21st Century if you want to discuss this topic.
Secondly...it doesn't matter who the Imperial Japanese under their old militant feudal system beat. They aren't that country anymore. They took constitutional measures after they got beaet in WWII to prevent the military from ever becoming an offensive force again.
Finally. China has a massive sphere of influence in Asia and the Pacific Rim.
https://bigthink.com/strange-maps/129-china-as-a-world-power-how-big
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Fair retort but I completely reject the argument and will end it here.
The conceit of the present time is hardly a measure of the future.
Rather, as the wise Greeks asserted; the past is prologue and
a far better predictor of the future; and China's past is present!
Additionally, national land mass was determined by creation; so what?
What matters is who you are; not what size you are!
In 1914, Czarist Russia, some 18x the size of Germany, was
effectively knocked out of WW1 at Tannenberg, that same year!
Britain, excluding her colonies, had the smallest land mass of a great
Empire since Greece. Yet they effectively ruled half the world. Why?
Because of their values and virtues; among them; self-discipline,
courage, perseverance, initiative and honor.
Yet somehow these values and virtues will suddenly appear in China,
w/a heritage of autocratic rule, that has now morphed into totalitarian
Marxism having a veneer of "so called " capitalism. Why of course!
Japan awakened in 1853, seeing Britain in their west, and changed.
Having been there, it can change again if it chooses to.
In contrast, China has no such legacy to repeat; the real world.