No, no and no.Probably intent. China wants to maintain stability and prevent dissidence at any cost necessary. Probably also has a historic precedence; the fear of the country falling apart again. That fear is most likely what drives most of Xi's actions. In many instances where China's actions could damage it's international relations the country have kept remarkable restraint; the protests in Hong Kong, Trump's provocations or military exercises in the Pacific. China wants to maintain the status-quo while at the same time being recognized as the new global superpower. As long as the established globalization paradigma of mutual benefit stays intact I don't think China will ever pursue an aggressive expansionist policy like your typical fascist dictators. The economic losses are simply too great. I also don't think there is much indication to believe that China is all that interested in the affairs of other countries in the first place other than the countries it considers part of it's dominion. That China tried to deflect blame for covid was also largely in response to Trump's incessant 'China virus' remarks that forced the regime into propaganda mode. The country was more open at the start of the pandemic(not the initial outbreak when they tried to sweep it under the rug) by even publishing the virus' genome very early on so countries could start developing vaccines.
China never shows actual restraint.
China broke the agreement they signed when being given Hong Kong by the UK and have continuously breached international law in the South China Sea by de-facto annexing the waters of other countries. Trump's military exercises were peanuts compared to China's provocations.
And no China doesn't want to maintain any status quo, otherwise they wouldn't have taken down the two system approach with Hong Kong, Annexed maritime territory and upped their threats towards Taiwan.
Off course China won't start WW3 and that's simply because they're more pragmatic than Hitler or Mussolini. But Franco didn't start a world war either. You don't need to start invading countries left and right to be a fascist.
And again... no, China started lying and hiding information before Trump called it the Chinese Virus. And based on how they lied and hid information they deserved all the petty political attacks they got. They deserve much bigger consequences than that actually. And if you want to mention petty political moves, what about China receiving help from Europe in the early days of the pandemic and asking the EU to keep quiet about it to save face and afterwards rubbing it all over everyone's faces whenever they send any kind of help when things stabilised in China?
And lastly, China's history is no excuse for any of its behavior and neither is their intent. Especially since their intent is very similar to the one of Hitler for example. His intent was also to have a great and prosper Third Reich and he identified some races as being in the way of that dream. It's no different from China which considers that a great China requires it's population to be Han(-like). The real issue is not the goal, because every leader's goal is the same (reaching greatness for their country) it's what they consider the correct approach to reach that goal. A modern western social liberal country believes greatness is reached through enhanced freedom, equality and fairness. A fascist country believes it's reached through extreme nationalism, far reaching homogeneity and oppression.
Last edited: