Five hundred years ago, China dominated Asia as the world's most advanced superpower. To understand China's role in the world come 2025, it helps to look at the rise of Prussia in the 1870s. It is nearly impossible to imagine a world not led by Western institutions and not dominated by Western values. But China's growing power signifies just such a transition, in much the same way Prussia stripped Britain and France of their leading roles in Europe. The rise of Beijing does not automatically translate into a decline for Washington, but it is a challenge to America's superpower position.
China changes the meaning of being a superpower.
At present a superpower is a country with a big economy and global military reach. The word was popularized in the 1960s to fit the U.S., the only holder of the title today. China will have neither the material wealth of the U.S., nor its global military reach. But looking at the rise of China through the narrow framework of numbers of automobiles or Osprey helicopters doesn't come to grips with the country's sources of power. Defining a superpower in terms of economic and military size leaves out the power that comes from being able to upset the system, even when done unintentionally.