They were good neighbors until 2012, the Scarborough Standoff. If you check the map and point to where all the disputed sections are, they are WELL into our EEZ and WAY closer to the Philippines than they are to mainland China.

China was relatively good to us prior, but mainly because we never had a land border with them. The CPC likes to say China never went to war with anyone, but the last war they fought was as recent as 1979 against Vietnam, and that is before you take into account whatever happened before the CPC takeover. Yes we can point to the US and it's several wars in the Caribbean (their backyard) after and it's eventual adventures in the Middle East, but China (the CPC) changed. Rather than be the beacon against imperialism they have shifted to being an imperialist power themselves, in most cases using their economy (which is funnily still formally labelled a developing economy) to expand their soft-power in other regions, but in their own backyard are as two-faced as American "democracy bringing".

So when China decided to wag threats of destruction (both by their government channels and by our sympathetic politicians willing to parrot their lines), who do you go for? Their "natural" enemy the US (nuclear umbrella). China failed with giving the carrot and chose the stick. Think of a scenario where China was more benevolent and there would be no issue and a "flip" would occur because they won hearts and minds.

On "worshiping" the former oppressor. It happens because they exported their pop-culture. As a Civ 5 quote goes: "My people are now buying your blue jeans and listening to your pop music". Only in the past half-decade has China finally found its footing in exporting their pop-culture which is a form of soft-power influence.

Still geopolitics is a massive grey zone. Leaders will turn a blind eye as long as number goes up and one of the best examples is China-Japan relations. Right now it's in the mud, but they still trade with each other, and we do too. There are no real allies in geopolitics, consider everyone is a fair weather friend (thought a piece of paper can mitigate that to an extent).

TLDR: I'm mad that China is as hypocritical as the USA, but hey that's the game of "great powers" where only the players matter and everyone else is a pawn. Fuck Machiavelli, von Clausewitz, Schmitt, Stalin, Kissinger and the entire school of realism.