I remember reading a long time ago about how China had massive ships in relation to their European counter parts. Did they use those ships for colonizing? Or were they just a defensive navy? I know the Pacific Ocean is much larger than the Atlantic Ocean. So naval travel across would be much harder and longer.
China has indeed had a highly colonialist past, as any sort of animated map will attest. My own specialisation, the Qing state, while Manchu in origin and core leadership, nonetheless mobilised Chinese resources for vast conquests, including Mongolia, Tibet and Xinjiang, the motives for which I discuss in part here.