Now? I've seen this since 2014 when the Yellow Movement happened in Hong Kong, and I was living in a jungle on an Island in the middle of the Pacific. What World are you living on that you didn't see the rise of a tyrannical juggernaut that had no qualms intervening in affairs of it's neighbors to flex its power on the World stage, and kicking sand in the face of people's metaphorical face when it came to Human Rights abuses all while using its populace as slave labour, debasing its currency to create ghost towns with massive cheap fiat and calling it prosperity while the CCP controlled Industries sourced endless amounts of funding from Elites in the West that systemically undercut most local and small businesses?

No, I'd say most people who believe that China is only now in the Media are the problem as they didn't see the obvious and thought buying cheap disposable goods from China would never ensure that manufacturing base of most countries would be centralized and create a massive central point of failure which would put supply chains in a very detrimental position and in the hands of the CCP. COVID only happened to expose just how deadly this was, but this was very clear to see if you bothered to look at China's behaviour in the last 2 decades.

Sinophobia, as it were, isn't what I think should be the focus as I honestly have a great deal of sympathy and sorrow for the plight of the average Chinese citizen who is simply trying to get ahead in what is a short window in what has otherwise been a state of poverty, wide spread perpetual misery and economic despair coupled with countless purges and Civil warfare.

And before I get accused of being racist: its worth noting that one side of my family has it's origin in Guangzhou.