Don't confuse media rhetoric with reality. Japan isn't a walkover like Iraq, Syria, or even Cuba.
I can argue China saw how the West reacted to the annexation of Crimea with a whimper and embolden Russia to cause conflict in East Ukrainian. However the conflict in Ladakh with India does looks illogical when India was the reason Quad was never effective. Now we have their neighbours ganging up on China so I think that was a strategic error.
Always difficult to understand outside looking in without the facts, kida like the Vaccines even at the risks from all the side effects. Ends justify means perhaps?
