China already IS a superpower, but lucky for us, they just LOOK big, the large majority of thier military is land forces, and the USA is not dumb enough to start a land war with China.
NAVAL WARFARE - China has been increasing the size of thier navy for the last 10 years, everyone thinks they want Taiwan back, this is pretty much the case, the only thing stopping them is the USA has a much better navy, super carriers, lethal attack submarines, and better technologies. A Naval war with China would be big, China has purchased quite a few submarines, which could be bad news for US ships. In the long run, the US Navy with its massive arsenal would eventually wipe out the Chinese Navy. This would be made possible by the accelerated production of the F-22 Raptor if we actually do go to war with China, because the key to keeping our ships safe in the Pacific lies in winning the skies first, and blowing away anything that takes off from China.
BALISTIC MISSILES - Yes China has some pretty good ones too, mostly because they stole the technology from the US. But, we are still a step ahead of them. Our missile defenses for our ships is way better then thiers. They would shoot thier missiles at us, we take some damage but pretty much steer clear of serious danger, then we shoot our tomahawks at them, they cant really do anything, and they lose ships, eventually we win.
But even if we wipe out all thier ships and shoot down all thier planes, we aint gonna TOUCH mainland China, not for a LONG time. So whatever goes on there just happens, and we can complain all we want, even if the chinese govt gets smart and helps us erradicate the bad guys, there will still be a huge black market for guns, bombs, poisins, etc. going on there.