"rise of china" and wst

Today in my Contemporary Sociological Theory course I led a discussion of
world-system theory.  I/we did not do justice to the topic, of course, as
part of a whirlwind tour of theories.

But an issue came up that made me wonder about the theory, and that is the
so-called "rise of China."  Perhaps I'm a bit slow and this is what Gunder
has been trying to say for the past few years, but I found myself
wondering if it doesn't challenge the theory at a basic level.

Here are some possibilities:

A) Is a peripheral country actually set to become a contender for
hegemonic power?  If so, doesn't that knock a big hole in the theory?  

B) Is it actually the case that China, being a peripheral country, is
not really going to be a contender for hegemon/core power any time
soon?  (Perhaps, like the old USSR, it's really just moving up to
semi-peripheral status?)

C) Perhaps the truth is some combination of the two (as in Kantor's recent
study) and China can become quite powerful without becoming part of the
"core" in terms of GDPPC?  What are the implications of that for the
theory?

Are there other positions I've missed?  What is the evidence for each?

Hoping to trigger a productive debate,

Richard Hutchinson
Weber State University
remote Ogden, Utah