You are trying to shift the topic. Merrill said "An aggressively expansionist China doesn't fit China's historic imperial pattern." He is clearly talking about Chinese civilization overall and not just PRC/CCP, as PRC is not historic imperial. And you disagreed with him, and now you are trying to say you were only implying PRC/CCP and not historical China?

1. You point that "ancient China couldn't because it was always warring with itself hence why it didn't occupy the borders that the People's Republic" is not the whole picture. While it's true that there have been warring period in China, there are also ample periods that Chinese Empire was stable and able to expand but did not, e.g. Qin built the Greatwall to defend rather than invade, Tang was happy to leave Korea along and only sent in the army when its Korean vassal state was attacked by rival, it simply reinstalled local Korean Kings and retreated afterward, vs. Rome's historical pattern of converting such territories into administrative province of the republic/empire, Ming dynasty didn't try to colonize Southeast Asia like the Europeans did after sending the massive Armada. Not saying Chinese has peaceful genes or whatever, but it's clear Chinese empires realized it's too much hassle to conquer these foreign land, and they were happy with what they had in China. This just can't be more different vs. Japan's history of invading Korean in 15th century, and China/Korean/SEA in 19th and 20th century, colonizing and enslave the local populations.

2. Genocide and mass internment, please provide more evidence than the 8 people interview from CHRD and the "research" by Adrian Zenz, but it's another topic all by itself.