An interesting thing is that they likely cannot, outside of some exceptional circumstances--which might include the current clownish situation. Lots of countries would like to be among leading economies. But they don't have enough capital, cannot get it on really favorable terms, don't have the know-how, cannot have effective protectionism to start up (blocked by international rules and retaliations).
You can attract foreign capital and corporations, but it's much harder to tie their people and wealth to you permanently. There is a term 'middle income trap' for example. The impressive thing about PRC is how they've had enough power leverage and ability to play into turn-of-Millennium Western establishment's mentality to really push ahead. But there are many countries that couldn't.