Quite the opposite. China was a 2nd player due to its vast territory and population. Chinese are not homogeneous like Koreans for example when it comes to culture and one language. They were always hard to manage and hard to rule and organize. That's why they kept loosing to japanese, mongols, british and the US.

China has to always pay attention to its neighbours. They can be economic dwarves compared to US or China but are extremely powerful when organized.