This just feels like whataboutism, no one denies that the European imperialism was bad.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whataboutism
I'm not creating a false moral equivalence between European Imperialism and China, I'm refuting it.
You imply a relationship between the two throughout the rest of your comment, starting from the first sentence. Just because you make the refutation in the last sentence does not suddenly wave away the whataboutism you employ through the rest of your comment; directly comparing the two.
A: X is bad, B does that. B is bad.
B: Y is bad too, and A does that. You're just as bad as me.
What I said was:
Imperialism is A, B, C, D.
China doesn't do any of those, so let's not call them imperialist.
Now you can argue about what imperialism is, but you can't argue that I'm making a different kind of argument to whataboutism.