China was nowhere in the global power picture till 1980s, and during the 80s also it used to be dictated on what to do by the US and Russians. But the Russians have been helping China behind the scene in order to create a competing force against US.
Coupled with that, the Chinese government ruled by the Communist party, has been working hard in improving the economy in a big way. They focussed on improving the infrastructure in the country and also put the massive work force to good use by focusing on exports market.
The Chinese were able to get billions of dollars of foreign investments in the last two decades which made China into the global manufacturing hub. The US and Europe were able to source their products from China at fractional cost which helped these economies in a big way.
But silently the export growth led the Chinese economy with massive trade surplus year after year. China also invested the monies wisely in furthering the infrastructure setup in the country. Now China ranks number one or number two in many sectors including mobile handsets, consumer durables, cars, electronics , ship building, steel manufacturing etc.,
China is a true global power today and the entire world is depending on China to some extent for stability.