Don't know if you meant this to be a poll, but I agree that contact with the Chinese may prove helpful.
We need to be wary, as they're likely to ask us to declare war each time we speak with them or to demand techs like the AI seems to do all the time. Though they may offer some things, we'll have to watch our reputation as well.
We may have to gift them a tech, but if it can get some trading started it may not be a bad idea to do so.