China couldn't give two fucks about expanding into Europe, they only want to extract resource into Chinese territory. In the same way that US expansion is about freeing up trade to expand corporate interest the Chinese what to maximise relationships in their favour to improve their own interest.
They don't want territory in the same way as Russia or any traditional empire.
I don't mean China annexing Poland using troops. I mean expanding their sphere of influence to control Russian resources and the regions south of Russia.
But their sphere of influence is already massive in the the region without the instability of fragmentation from Russian control. It would be a massive problem for them if there was a mass independent movement in the region caused by a a collapse of Russia.
China couldn't give two fucks about expanding into Europe, they only want to extract resource into Chinese territory. In the same way that US expansion is about freeing up trade to expand corporate interest the Chinese what to maximise relationships in their favour to improve their own interest.
They don't want territory in the same way as Russia or any traditional empire.