regarding China, I recommend the articles & education pages that Qiao Collective has collated (and some of their larger ones are stuffed full of credible sources including ones from western media for those still skeptical). The 101 for socialism with chinese characteristics (under /education) is pretty good.

I’m sorry none of these are short, however.

However I also don’t think short quips without sourcing are good for dispelling short generalizations like “expansionism==imperialist”(for that specifically, gotta point to Grandad Lenin’s Imperialism The Highest Stage of Capitalism, to explain/define rather than to correlate by appearances*, right. And also that, the last expansion/border skirmish of China was almost 50 years ago, so China=expansionism==imperialist doesn’t even work – unless the people you’re talking to are considering Taiwan not part of China, which Taiwan doesn’t even agree - only recently has there been a TW separatism movement. Actually, thinking about it, western propaganda regarding China and painting it as “expansionist” is a good segue back to Qiao Collective. They have good resources particularly for the balkanization/separatism claims of parts of China including but not limited to HK, Taiwan, Xinjiang"“East Turkmenistan”", Tibet, and also explainers for BRI also – my tldr for BRI is that it’s a multitool that does many things in regards to anti-imperialism, from eroding US dollar hegemony to assisting materially in development for underdeveloped places)

*I know it’s sisyphean talking to western leftists and even newbie commies but. god. why is it so common for people’s understanding of imperialism being, like, aesthetic. Imperialism is when bigger country does anything with/to another smaller country. By virtue of power imbalance, there wasn’t real consent it means the smaller party was coerced. Expansionism means not just territory acquisition it also means spreading influence and making allies. It’s frankly absurd.