With a POD of no earlier than Oct 1, 1949, make the PRC a superpower alongside the US by the year 2000. Could this be done if Mao was killed off early on and someone like Deng Xiaoping implemented reforms 20 years ahead of OTL?
Do they have to be a true equal to the US?
If China just from 2009 to the present increased their military budget to 6% of their GDP (around what America spends counting the National Guard and VA) they would have a military budget of ~650 billion nominally and over a trillion PPP. The gap between China and the third biggest economy is already gigantic (11 vs 4.5 billion nominally) and when taking price differences into account they have the biggest overall GDP now.
They still would lack the technology, power projection, alliances, finance, and cultural influence America does, but so did the Soviet Union.