The West has a complicated relationship with China, though. It is in our collective interest for China to grow and advance, so long as that growth and advancement is done peacefully. Think of it as broad application of the carrot-and-stick principle: unfettered access to resources if you play nice, but we'll cut you off if you don't. In that sense, controlling the resource market while still letting your potential adversaries access it (at an even greater rate than before) is a very strategic move.
Not strategic when it requires the particular means you're talking about, but otherwise, sure. Geostrategy is no longer like it once was though. The chance of war between any major powers is very small given how dependent everyone is on trade. I wouldn't say geostrategy is totally irrelevant, and it's no longer as zero sum, like you said, but there's never any need to go around invading basket cases just to prevent world wars, not that those countries' resources are possible or affordable to control either.
