"As a foreigner ..."
Okay, not familiar with your account, so I was not aware of that. Do you have an intro post about your country of origin?
While I cannot speak for the EU (although I suspect it is in the "same boat"), ...
"And yes we've noticed how, bizarrely, the US and EU etc keep justifying China's approach to things and even copying them outright ..."
... I have read about the extensive amount of corruption linked to the Chinese here in America.
We need a massive "cleansing" to take place. And the political courage and will to do whatever it takes to see it through to completion, i.e. those found guilty need to be in prison ...
As bad as it is to see the mess Ukraine is in, I believe the Chinese are a far more dangerous adversary than Russia ...