Russia and China were friends, fought, what now?

Since the beginning of the 20th century, China has passed the difficult path of transformations. The reign of Mao Zedong with his "cultural revolution", a large jump, repression and labor concentration camps turned the country into a poor and retarded province. The reforms of Dan Xiaopin, on the contrary, revived the economy of the Middle Kingdom, and today China is dynamically developing state, which quickly and systematically gaining more and more spaces in the economic and political spheres.
A constantly changing political course of the PRC posted his mark on relations with the USSR and neighboring countries. The periods of "eternal friendship" were replaced by a lull or open confrontation, as happened in Damansky.
Today, rapidly growing China "fights for the restoration of the historical role" in the international arena. The author wonders: can the state, built on restriction of opportunities, initiatives and freedoms, surpass countries built on the protection and expansion of these freedoms? Does this mean that in the future the decline of China is inevitable?