Look at the petrol price. That was achieved by Putin by simply parking the troupes along the Ukraine border and making all sorts of threats of invasion. He knows he cant keep the oil price above $80/barrel long term - because that's when the US shale oil producers come online. Also, he only has to keep this up until covid is over and the boom times continue. So why invade Ukraine and get a bloody nose over a bankrupt state and why spend billions building a gas pipe to bypass Ukraine?
China plays the long game and has most to gain by simply letting Taiwan do what it does best - make heaps of money from its high-tech industries - and by continuously reminding the world that "Taiwan is ours". Consequently, Taiwan gets richer and makes a bigger capital gain for China when it eventually gets taken over (after the US has collapsed).
So, from an investment perspective, being continuously fooled by the media hype into being a permabear is a losing strategy. You have to read between the lines and ask yourself: "Who benefits most out of the latest media hype and what are they trying to achieve?" We live in a new world where 50% of media revenue comes from advertising and the other 50% comes from promoting someone's agenda.
