That China sees an opening is unsurprising, given the idyot occupying the white house.

Will anyone respect China's new pretense? Probably not. China has acted aggressively in the south china sea and continues to oppress the people of Tibet. It remains the centre of the sickening worldwide trade in endangered species and animal parts and chinese gangs are responsible for orchestrating the wholesale slaughter of elephants and rhinos in Africa, as well as large scale poaching the world over. China continues to pretend that it is a developing country when it is asked to contribute, and then pretends to be a superpower when it sees there is profit to be made from doing so. 

China has blocked the UN Security Council in countless global hot spots. 

Yes China has done a few good things too, but it needs to respect human rights and protect the environment more than it exploits it before it can pretend to be a leader globally.