People do not understand that China is around at least a decade away from creating its own economic, technological and military eco-system.
Without this and also getting a large share of the "Global South" invested in the Chinese alternative order, it cannot do much to influence events in regions like ME.
Also it needs to reclaim Taiwan both for national prestige and strategic reasons - access to deep waters of the Pacific. PLAAN will then be much less susceptible to blockade by USN.
China never ever claimed to be a superpower to my knowledge and so not sure why anyone is saying they did.
China's military is more or less on par technologically with the US. Although each country is ahead in different fields. The US has superior stealth bomber tech, aircraft carrier tech, etc. China has superior hypersonic tech, drone tech and robotic tech.
The US is obviously still far stronger in logistics because of the 800 military bases that the US military operates through the world and its military alliances. China is no competition for that yet.
But I actually don't even care to get into this argument because China is strategically taking a low profile in military affairs because it is pursuing the goal of fundamentally building its real power base which will be in establishing a global financial architecture, trade dominance, supply chain dominance, technological advancement and manufacturing advancement. China is already taking the lead in almost all consumer technologies and is already by far the world's most dominant trading nation.
As far as the Middle East, I just think it is nonsensical to hear talk that China is supposed to intervene in Gaza or Syria, ESPECIALLY when you understand the circumstances. The Sunni Arab world supports Israel. Let's be clear about that. The Sunnis support Israel and they ONLY UNITE to attack Israel's enemies.
So what would happen if China intervenes in Gaza? You will start hearing trash Al Jazeera spewing non stop about the threat that "Atheist Communists" and "pig eating Chinks" pose to the Muslim world. Gulf countries will pour money to bribe and arm terrorists to target China both in the Middle East and elsewhere in the BRI. The entire Western world will sanction China and the Sunni Arab world will be right there on the front lines in sanctioning China.
So the problem here is that you have a two faced piece of shit Sunni Arab world that no one can ever trust. They cry and whine about Gaza. Then they demonize anybody that can actually help Gaza. In the end, you realize they are just completely useless people who sabotage anybody who tries to fix what they whine about, precisely because they are happy being slaves of the Zionists. So let them be slaves.
As of now, how are China's interests even being hurt staying away from the conflict? China has growing trade and investment relations with the Gulf. It is involved with infrastructure projects in Turkey. China operates the port of Haifa in Israel. China is building new Cairo.
So China is doing quite well for itself with the current situation in the Middle East. China is a very smart country and didn't transform itself from a 3rd world country to the most technologically advanced country in 30 years by being idiots.