Here's a very basic explanation of some of the reasons why:
First of all, both China & Russia are heavily dependent on the international market, particularly the former; do you really think Beijing would want to make that kind of a gamble? Their economy would collapse within a week! And then there's the nuclear question: as much of a crook as Putin is, do you really think he'd be willing to gamble with 160 million Russian lives over a dictator whom, like the Iranians, even if not by as much of a degree, isn't exactly a genuine ally, and might actually turn on them in the right circumstances? Putin may be a crook, ditto for Hu Jintao, but he's no Hitler.....Hitler might actually just have gone and nuked people if he'd gotten the chance to do so.
I don't doubt this has the potential to turn into a very nasty regional war, but definitely not WWIII; even Yom Kippur and the war in '82 didn't get to that stage, and both of them had a rather higher chance of doing so, too, in a much more polarized and less connected world.
Also, I'd like to point out that MAD, too, is another reason why WW3 isn't likely. Even if the Russians & Chinese *had* wanted to attack us, they know that they would risk being totally annihilated, even if they took us down pretty hard.
It does kinda bother me that so many people out there are still stuck in Cold War era thinking; this isn't the '80s anymore.
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