In reading about the Vilani, I noticed that they were often described in terms that reminded me of 18th century descriptions of China. Not detail for detail, but they very much seem to fit within a Western fantasy about a superior other that maintains an enviable social control in a rational manner. A very common Enlightenment fantasy, look at Gulliver's
Brobdingnag for an example that's easy to find.
Realizing how much Traveller is
Brits in Space and how the British Raj influences the setting in it's view of aliens, it occued to me that taking Chinese cultural features and using them in the 3I fits perfectly well.
The Third Imperium needs to maintain the myth that Democracy is impossible. China has a long tradition of maintaining the same
Fantasy. Chinese culture, with its refined elegance and long duration would be highly attractive in the Imperium.
Besides, the people of China would have been among those most likely to immigrate to the Vilani worlds during the Rule of Man and both most likely to retain their own culture and most likely to get along with the Vilani and understand where they are coming from.
Chinese cultural forms should be commonplace all over the Third Imperium. Just imagine what a British Raj of China would be like and snag those cultural forms.