Sincerely, I think that time for acting as "poor and weak" China has passed or is about to pass every moment now. China is allmost superpower ( and will certainly be a superpower within a decade ), so you can't fool anyone with that story anymore. And frankly, no need for that anyway.
I agree that still isn't the time for full blown confrontation with the US ( from Chinese perspective ), but in a decade or so, it will. And everybody knows that.
At the end, those who are against China ( Japan, India, Vietnam etc. ) will be on US side, not because they like them, but because it's in their interest. Same thing for those on Chinese side.
Meanwhile, China can play "good superpower" role ( superpower that don't makes invasions of other countries, don't steals their oil, superpower that helps poor countries in Africa etc. ). That should be enough.
I agree that the time is past for China to act poor and weak.
Over the summer, apparently every member of the national security council was given a copy of "Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides's Trap?"
One of the things it points out is that China is already larger than the USA in many respects.
In addition, I don't see any rush to force any issues. In 10 years time, China will still be comparatively poor and should still be growing much faster than the US. So China can afford to wait another 25 years until it becomes a fully hitech and wealthy country some 3x larger than the USA.
So there shouldn't be any need for a war.