You are right, but you watch with Westerner's eyes. To understand China you should be Chinese, and my opinion can be wrong too, but my friend, who studied for 2 years in Beijing business college and made very important acquaintances there (which allowed him to build an empire of workwear-producing companies across half of the Europe, with raw materials coming from China) - my friend told me 2 main rules of Chinese mindset.
1) China is the center of the world
2) Times flow like water, borders change, empires emerge and die, but in the end - China will prevail, no matter how long it takes.
Western cultures make PERSONAL achievements of a lifespan important. You have 80-100 years at max and you HAVE TO DO SOMETHING BIG to be remembered. Chinese think in centuries and their dream is to see China prosperous, not themselves. This is why communism, that dictates "common over personal" is the perfect ideology for them.
China lost a huge chunk of soil to Russian emperors back in the 19th century. Since then, all their military doctrines included the point "to restore the boundaries of old". However, China met 20th century as a poor country with outdated agriclutural and technical technology, nearly absent heavy industry, railroads, etc. What di they do? They acccepted Soviet help and ideology, which allowed them to BORROW TOP-NOTCH TECHNOLOGY and make a huge jump over technological gap.
I will not tell the full story of China through the 20th century - WIkipedia is at your disposal.
The main points are:
1) China will have all it wants. With trade, preferably. With intimidation, if needed. With brute force, if necessary.
2) Chinese people do not live in such a hurry as we do. They are grateful to live IN China and FOR China.
3) Syberia will be Chinese. It may take 5 years, or 20, or 50 - China is patient, like a dragon. And fearsome, like one.
They do not have to "bully the poor countries". They just show them that living like China and IN China is better for them.
Just to illustrate my words - here is a LONG ARTICLE with LOTS OF PICTURES, so you'd better have UNLIMITED TRAFFIC.
It is in Russian, so ready your Google translator or any other tool of choice.
Chinese Growth (Nolfen)
They are 1.5 billion of slaves, unfortunately. Shelter and a dish of rice soup without meat is what hundreds of millions get for their 12-hours-long shifts on Chinese factories. No retirement funding, struggle of ideologies, lack of creativity, educational gap, outdated coal-fired power generating facilities, rapidly worthening ecology, huge financial problems due to bureaucracy - China has a lot to deal with.