Eh.....it did, but with Japan as the agent, not China, as now.
Baaaasically if you swap China for Japan and fast forward 60 years, that’s what we have, right now.
Throw in a financial collapse and everything is set, with the important difference that Japan is qualitatively not behind China the way China was vis-a-vis Japan, so long ago.
Of course in the future re-play both sides will prolly have nukes, so that’s sorta a big wild-card.
Basically Japan needs real carriers, long-range subs, and they need to buy the X-47, and air-to-air refueling planes, etc.
Lots of stuff they can’t legally own, right now.
There are other important factors. Yes, Japan is strong militarily now. However, there is strong nationalistic fever in the Chinese, not so evident in the Japanese. The Japanese have a bad taste in their mouth for war, after their beatdown in WWII. Throw in their aging population and low birthrate, and the weakened "manliness" of men today, and all that may put Japan at a disadvantage against China in another war. I do believe another great war is coming; it seems that the Chinese are moving at a faster pace in preparing for it than others are doing. It's going to be ugly.