It was all quite friendly under Deng Xiaoping when China was mostly about peaceful trade. Sadly under Xi it's moving more to building up its military and trying to take other people land.
(But even "friends" sometimes sling some shit at eachother every now and then when it benefits them. It just usually doesn't cost $1.6B when this happens.)
Human rights abuses don't stop us from allying with Saudi Arabia, Israel, Armenia, Egypt, Pakistan, the UAE... and of course we have plenty of abuses within our own borders.
But China is a threat in a way those others aren't. Not just an economic competitor but potentially the next superpower after ours fades, and maybe next century's dominant culture. We're scared of them because they challenge everything we believe about our own model's superiority...
Why can't US and China just be competitors, as it was before Xi got on this conquer Taiwan kick? He's another one of those aging boomers who hung on too long.