I'm just going to support your points here by backing it up with some of my own knowledge, and I'll provide some perspective from someone from a Chinese family.
China is unlikely to be looking at foreign conflict because 1) it's got enough going on with HK at the moment 2) its economy is becoming increasingly integrated with foreign economies and 3) China has no particular reasons for conflict (at the moment anyway). It hasn't been in Chinese culture to ever go looking for war, but its spends an appropriate amount of money on defense. For an increasingly strong and rich country, it'd be stupid not to.
As for criticizing Japan, this hate towards the Japanese has been in Chinese society for a while, ever since WW2. The Japanese did really, very very terrible atrocities towards the Chinese people. In some aspects, it was even worse than Nazi treatment of Jews. The Chinese are still bitter and to top it all off, the Japanese have never officially apologised (in comparison, Germany has apologised deeply, the people are sincere in their apologies and they have offered continuous compensation). The Japanese continue to visit and pay their respects to Japanese war generals. (Shinzo Abe is the grandson of Nobusuke Kishi, who served as a senior official in the Manchuko puppet government. Recently he visited and paid respects to his grandfather at a war monument. South Korea and China were furious for obvious reasons). Especially in recent years where the Chinese have been suspicious of the US/Japan over various matters (relations with Russia, the Senkaku Island disputes, Shinzo Abe's recent policies allowing soldiers to be sent overseas for the first time since WW2, etc).
Considering the context of sudden growth in wealth and living standards in China, it's understandable that the Chinese prioritise money over everything else, but this is growing to the point of disillusionment in my opinion and has completely changed Chinese culture. Entertainment does a good job in distracting the population as there is so much choice that it masks the fact that the entertainment itself if censored. News analysis programs present a biased view of events around the world and constantly discuss what China can do to better itself.
As for censorship, I don't believe it will go away anytime soon, but it is inevitable due to the increasing focus on globalisation. The political concerns regarding HK will definitely push anti-censorship back at least 10-15 years.