They've dominated their region for a long time. Vietnam and NK are their sattellites basically. Russia is their close ally. The only regional opposition they have is India. Taiwan is a small bug to them, the only reason they haven't invaded it is because of TSMC and ASML, mainland China hasn't caught up with them and Nvidia yet.
They're all over Africa and south Asia. But unlike the US/West they don't exert political influence. When they build infrastructure for example, they set up worker camps, isolated from the local population. they only employ their own imported people and clean up and leave quietly afterwards.
They're acting like good business partners, instead of a superpower wielding it's might and extending its influence. it's good for business for all involved parties for sure, and smart too. But not having strong influence means for example, the US can come in, outbid them, bail out african loans to China and they lose that source of commerce.
