"China has never been an aggressor with regard to territorial or ideological expansion."
Tell that to the thousands of dead UN and US soldiers and marines that died in North and South Korea. No Chinese territory was violated yet they treacherously attacked UN and US forces defending South Korea.
You may want to also take that up with Taiwan, while they are threatend and blackmailed with growing hundreds of Ballistic Missiles 100 miles across the Strait.
Ideological? Are you kidding they force there own people to believe in the Party ideology and their manifestos and Maoisms state very clearly that world wide aims and goals.
"If treated in a non-hostile manner I suspect we have little to fear from them and may even benfit from closer contact as trading partners.
Yes, we can hope that they will come into the fold of nations and act responsibly, but their actions and threats against many do not give us great hope. I do believe we should trade with them and hope that their economic freedom eventually leads to a more open society and government...however, we should be careful with high technology that can be used for military purposes and we should also be wide-eyed in terms of China's past use of slave labor.
Some clarification...They went Communist in 1949 and this sent them on a course contrary to their four thousand years or so history. Your examples are accurate but I still believe they are more inward looking than expansionist.