China fought a war with Japan from 1930-1944, concurrent with and followed by its own civil war. Not to mention its involvement in Korea and Vietnam. Not exactly centuries.
History, especially in the case of China, did not start in 1900. During Han, Tang and Ming dynasties at least, the country was not in a military struggle for survival, and while dynasties die eventually, the country survived all them (until now).
Note aside, it is funny to see that when doing some quick blind generalizations on mankind, like "countries at peace die eventually", one can almost always use China as a coutner example. I can trow a fairly lenghty list of them.
