In a scenario where the USSR survived through a more pragmatic reformer (a Soviet "Deng Xiaoping" so to speak) taking power instead of Gorbachev, what would the Soviet military look like? What differences would there be between the military of a PRC-esque USSR and the Russian Federation? How powerful would said Soviet military be?
It matters very much just how good this reformer is.
Someone who is as good as Gorbachev (so, throws alot of babies out with the bathwater) but more hard-headed about crushing potential enemies, would preside over a troubled 90s. Just keeping the country together would mean less disruptions to internal trade, so that would help keep GDP and productivity up across the Soviet Union, but it would still be easy to blunder deeper into petro dependence and oligarchy.
That said, I reckon someone more pragmatic would, on balance, have a harder time. Part of Gorbachev's problem is he was extremely pragmatic and willing to try almost anything (and did try almost everything - he actually over-reformed, putting out new reforms before his previous reforms had a chance to bed down) and Gorbachev seems to have thought that others were as detached from ideals as he was - which was quite wrong, and ended up turning many of his early allies (more idealistic) against him and too many of the pragmatists left on his side were rather lacking in morals.
And as Sam R. has mentioned, much of what worked in China will not work in the Soviet Union, the agricultural situation was very different and the Soviet Union was already a much more productive economy meaning the problems were more complex for them. Though some of what Deng did (like a strong anti-corruption campaign that was followed to its end BEFORE any reforms were started, meaning the Chinese party was purged of the worst rotten eggs before surgery was attempted on the country's economy) is applicable to the Soviet case.
Anyways. Assuming that the Soviets get a somewhat inept reformer who is just a bit better at playing the internal political game, the USSR has a hard 90s, loses several ranks in the industrial league table, but probably manages to retain more of its previous economical and technological capabilities than OTL and makes a better recovery. Military wise, they would be fairly similar to OTL's Russia in structure (most of OTL's reforms grew out of the Afghanistan experience, though if there's no Chechen conflict, there may not be as quick a change in organization). With a less violent collapse, more weapons R&D programs would survive and many of the weapons seen OTL would be introduced earlier. Though of course we'd not see Ukraine's products. Though without the Cold War the military may not be so much larger than Russia's military in OTL. Even OTL they are comfortably in second place in terms of military power. We may see more funding on the navy and other means of projecting power a distance, so the Soviets might retain the best global power projection capability after the US (though it would be a distant second).
Now, if the Soviets have a particularly able reformer, then the Soviet military might stand a good chance at retaining parity with the US, but that is much harder to do.
fasquardon