yet they still prolong civil wars for selfish gain

Would be interested in what specific conflicts you're referring to. I am definitely critical of China for engaging in trade with essentially zero care for the conditions of the state they are trading with. Israel being the obvious criticism. Are those types of trade relations with countries what you're referring to? I agree if that's what you mean.

They still let their companies do whatever

This is in conflict to the normal complaints of China "disappearing" people. So, are you saying they don't do that? Because the famous cases of this are from businessmen that start speaking against the party, or doing actual social crimes.

I have criticism of China's free speech restrictions on individual citizens. But to say that China "let's companies do whatever they want" is in complete contradiction to the countless "violations of freedom" that the Western media speaks about. Because those are entirely made up of the capitalist of China stepping out of line with the party; or engaging in social murder like crimes.

They aren't better out of benevolence, but because they have a different imperial strategy.

I hear the language of the left here being used in a non material way. If you're someone that has the word "imperial strategy" in your vocabulary it shocks me to hear someone describe a system based on idealism as the core. "The purpose of a system is what it does." Its odd to conclude with a point of criticism that is rooted in idealism. It is rooted in the western idea that China is just "waiting for its moment of attack" with no material reason to conclude that.

If China wanted to start being aggressive and start it's Imperialist expansion there was no better time than the Iran invasion. You think America was ready to defend Taiwan when it was taking interceptors out of Korea to send them to Israel? Yet China decided to "wait" and instead reduce its purchases of oil to assist it's trade partners in East Asia.

At a certain point this "waiting for the right moment" Imperialist China narrative needs to die. They have proven their intentions are based entirely on offering a less parasitic form of trade than the US offers. One that is entirely without the use of military conflict.

I'm not sure how you can call that imperial strategy in a world where US Imperialism still exists. If the US was gone. Sure, it would be insane to engage in trade relations with states like Israel. But, you're criticism is in a vacuum and not in the context of the cold war being waged against China by the west.