I mostly thought good of China because of it's stance on Russia-Ukraine conflict, and sanctions against North Korea.

All propaganda stuff happens everywhere, europe has a ton of policies that try to show people "Europe is great" sentiment. Look at US elections, it's a corrupt shitshow, media is incredibly biased and actual voting has a ton of problems. Plus all the shit US did behind the scenes until Snowden made it public. All countries are fucked up in this regard and you can't single out China or Russia. Propaganda is everywhere.

"Mainland Great" classes isn't weird either, in Lithuanian education you read a lot of stuff that says how great our country is. My sister went to first grade last year and she got fake passport which has pictures and text saying that Lithuania is amazing. Every independence day(we get two of these every year) you watch movies and have classes about Lithuania. It happens everywhere. Patriotism is not a natural feeling, it's a fake feeling which you are teached by your country.

They built an artificial island directly off the coast of the Philippines. They are stationing military vessels there despite claiming it was for research when it was under construction. They now claim additional air and water rights that international law does not grant them. They built an oil rig in disputed waters and damaged several Vietnamese vessels there in protest.

This one is a legit point though. Yet, it seems more about just getting some oil. They don't actually roll tanks in foreign countries like Russia did in Georgia or Ukraine, and they don't bomb hospitals and schools in Syria like Russia does. Yeah, bullshit with Taiwan is bad, but it's not new, they don't become aggressors in new countries, China's and Taiwan's relations were complicated for a very long time now.