I believe China to be a mercantile culture, that was helped by the more developed states. But instead of valuing the relations, China only values them if it can see profit.
Also China values the relations if the profit of China is bigger that the profit of the other state.
In the mercantilist others must be loosers, as opposed to mutual benefits when all play nice.
“Mercantilism is a national economic policy that is designed to maximize the exports of a nation” [1]. This is what China used to be. (Starting, mostly, with Deng Xiaoping.) Xi prioritising force projection and jingoism is a shift away from mercantilism.
They are nationalist, and want to gain things at the expense of others all the time (I don't have first-hand experience but I believe it to be so).
So when I say China is mercantilist, I am referring more to their approach to relations as a zero-sum game.