China is ever looking for new resources they can use to build more things that they can then sell. That is one of the reasons they are so aggressively expansionistic. They need new markets and new factories, and they do best in markets they control. Chinese businessmen build their colonies and Chinese businessmen conquer other worlds by wielding economics. Generals control troops, but businessmen command the generals. That is why the Cowboys began to wear business suits when we landed on conquered Hyades Cluster worlds. It was the uniform that demanded the most respect of the Chinese.