By "other option" you mean heavily pursuing first world technologies that can be turned to the production of ever more sophisticated weapons, I agree. They have been doing that for at least 20 years, with resulting massive jumps forward in their military tech. Meanwhile, during the same time period they have been aggressively pursuing green techs and they still have the worst pollution problem in the world, seems oddly discordant doesn't it.
From the perspective of a space program, heavy investment in Solar power and associated technologies make sense. The wind power investments are a little weird, aside from it having the related issue of being "an intermittent source." Although that's less of an issue in space, so long as your equipment isn't operating in a planetary shadow. So once again, battery tech is relevant even in space. Doubly so if you're looking as colonies on the Moon, or even Mars(where wind power is a slightly relevant option, albeit a strange one to pursue near the onset of colonization).
Not going to deny the relevant techs also happen to be "dual use" as the United States has already more than amply demonstrated exactly that already.
As to the current posturing and other activities on the part of China, much of that is "for domestic consumption" but also realpolitik in that those steps help protect their own national interests after a fashion. They want a buffer, and will go to great lengths to ensure that buffer continues to exist. The South China Sea is further complicated by the oil reserves that are believed to be waiting for exploration within, so that goes back to "strategic national interests" (energy) as well as "buffer."
Of course, with the 1st World Nations freaked out about CO2 and looking for alternatives to fossil fuels, and with the hard turn to anti-nuclear after what happened at Fukushima in particular, having a solid lock on the production and IP rights of most of "the renewable options" puts them in a strong bargaining position with the west. I never accused them of being stupid, they're actually being quite smart about it.
You get into how they've lured most of the "1st world" tech sector into off-shoring the vast majority of the component production and assembly plants in China as well and they're in a very "healthy" position to ensure that their interests are our interests too. DOD may be reasonably insulated from supply disruptions due to war with China, but they're still going to get hammered when "the market" discovers those DOD suppliers are practically "the only game in town" for those parts/materials should China and its immediate area (S Korea, Japan, Taiwan) become a no-go trade zone for civilian traffic without military escorts.
This isn't even getting into the raw materials "rare earths" side of the market either, where they've basically run the other operations out of business by outproducing and undercutting them(helped by the fact they don't have the same restrictive environmental regs and review processes to contend with).
Too many factors in play to make War with China something anyone that's sane is likely to pursue. It may get frighteningly close to shooting at some point, but I don't think anyone (aside from NK) is crazy enough to start a shooting war with China, and China doesn't want one either, at least, not until they have a solid foothold in space, but that's likely to be decades away at present.
China's current interest is in being a regional power, and being "the deciding factor" in what happens within what it considers "its sphere of influence." It's going to push the boundaries constantly over time, as they have every reason to expect the United States will gradually cede ground to them over time on that front, so long as we're reasonably certain our existing trade relations will remain largely status quo. They know this, we know this, even if we don't want to acknowledge it. So long as they don't disrupt our trade relationships with China's neighbors. They'll be allowed to do pretty much whatever they want, so long as they don't push their neighbors too far on any given issue.
Once they're in space, and have a "solid foot hold" established up there, what they do is anybody's ball game. But if I were to hazard a guess, I'd expect close relations with the Philippines is on their agenda, probably so they can potentially pursue "more exotic options"(space elevator) without directly hazarding themselves.
I think they're playing a longer term game than us, and in some respects, I think the Communist Party in China is trying to "one up the capitalists" by mirroring a certain Chinese Emperor in ages long past. Global military super-power status is all well and good, but that goal is just so, well, terrestrial. Why try for that, and have to play a never ending game of "keeping up with the Joneses" and deal with the other expectations, responsibilities, and liabilities that such status entails(as well as the inherent instability of such a multi-polar scenario) when you can just secure your corner of the world, and focus your resources on dominating the solar system before anyone else can get there while you get someone else to expend their own resources on "global stability?" (and if you can get them to spend a little more on that particular undertaking from time to time while profiting on it yourself....)
Instead of sending hundreds/thousands of ships out to explore the oceans of the world and set up colonies in distant (occupied) lands on earth. They're going to see about sending thousands of people into space and colonizing that before anyone else does. Then once everyone else does get up there, you already hold the "prime real estate" so their undertakings will be that much more expensive, and potentially also result in their purchasing of resources and expertise you've developed in the interim. Even better, since you've potentially developed your "space infrastructure" already by that point, they're going to have a VERY hard time trying to compete with you while you're potentially able to start exploiting a near exponential growth curve on your own space manufacturing capabilities.
They're not wanting a war, what they're doing is trying to keep the lid on domestic unrest for the time being until the other nations of the world realize there is a new space race underway, at which point they can rally their people around that objective. NASA's a shadow of its former self, as is just about every other national space program out there at this point. SpaceX and BlueOrigin don't have the resources to compete against the national treasury of China. Heck, the United States Government would have to make some hard choices in order to try to compete with China's treasury at the moment.
