On the contrary, it was no surprise to anyone with a minimum of historical literacy that China's return was inevitable.
Only 2 cultures in human history had formed enduring empires that controlled their whole known world, that is the Han people, and the Roman birthed "western" cultural amalgamation that later split chiefly into frankish, Angloid and germanic lines.
During the nadir of Chinese civilization, after nearly a century of leaders clinging to outdated and stubborn ideas, it still took all the most powerful western countries in an union to temporarily defeat China. Decades later against a newborn with industry and infrastructure destroyed by ww2 but competently led China, all those western countries faced defeat despite not even fighting in core China, but rather the peripheries of Korea and Vietnam.
So how is it not inevitable that this culture with strong work ethic, inventiveness and organizational skill, which historically created the only diametrically opposed Empire to the inheritors of Rome, would also be the only worthy opponent for the west in their attempt to take over the world?
China is not and has never been a challenger to them. It has been their arch enemy which they failed to defeat over and over in the last century, despite coming close due to Qing, KMT shortsighted greed and incompetence.
