The biggest issue is that, under communist rule, China is so different from developed countries. It has a different set of value system. And because of that, there is no way for China to be strong. It is just big, may be powerful in some sense, but not stable.
"人家枪杆子硬,做事也霸气"
How useful is that? Russian is currently quite isolated. Most people care about their daily life (just think about Sweden, Norway and other similar countries), not the "powerful" Russia that you are thinking about.