Chinese alternative to Olive Oil

It's certainly safe. Butter, Oil, whatever, it's more about taste than anything else. Some people even push lard and butter as the "safe" options, because they require less processing than oil, and much less than margarine.

One thing which you should be aware of in regards to butter vs oil: butter has a significant amount of water in it, so you shouldn't substitute 1-to-1, or you will have a stronger flavour (and more fat) than perhaps you want.

If you're accustomed to salted butter, adding some salt will help ease the transition. If the flavour of olive oil is off-putting, there are plenty of more neutral flavoured oils that have a similar fat composition, or you can simply avoid extra virgin olive oil*.

*extra virgin olive oil in the U.S is largely a scam. In most of the world (countries that adhere to the IOC standard) this signifies "First Cold Press" olive oil. In the US it signifies "lamp grade olive oil with green food coloring". There are no restrictions on the use of terms like "extra virgin" in the US, so you can't guarantee that's what you're really getting just because it's on the label.

There's nothing magical about garlic that causes it to be especially prone to botulism - it's just commonly found as an example because it's commonly used to prepare flavoured oils.

All low-acid foods must be acidified or pressure-canned before long-term storage. Storage in oil creates an anaerobic environment which further promotes botulism, and room-temperature storage is even more risky.

Chili peppers are low acid, like all peppers, so yes, they're a risk.