Let's not pretend world politics ever had a single shred of morality to it from the get go. It's all just leverage and gains. China is no different. I don't see why China has to lose on softpower and profit due to some people's subjective sense of moral superiority.
This is something that always catches barbarians with their primitive morals off guard. In primitive cultures, if one is powerful then surely one will take what they want from the weak, and if one is moral then surely one will be selfless, it follows then that if one is not selfless then they must not be moral -> if they're not moral then they must want to steal -> if they don't steal then they must be weak.
China follows a simple principle, one that's proven to be optimal in game theory: you don't fuck with us, we don't fuck with you, if you fuck with us, you get fucked. China is moral because China doesn't rape and pillage the weak when its powerful, and China is also moral because China will always fuck up its enemies without mercy nor forgiveness, even if its weak and has to wait a century. It's the last part that catches barbarians off guard, barbarians who only understand strength and simple right-wrong morality.
China does not fuck with the west because China is strong, China fucks with the west because the west has fucked with China, and China didn't become the oldest civilization in history by taking prisoners. See, China also figured out the solution to the problem of "an eye for an eye leaves the world blind", China takes two eyes for an eye.
Western industry was built on colonialism, and China will leave no survivors.