We must for the moment play Xi's little game and as I've noted on another thread the purchase of more off the shelf military hardware is likely. My expectation is that every nation in the vicinity of China and/ or the South China Sea will do exactly the same.
That said, Xi's PLA politburo friends don't represent the whole of the CCP let alone all of China. They Don't.
Xi's war games fly in the face of China's longer term prosperity. China's properity needs programs such as Belt and Road to succeed but this won't happen while the current cold war continues. China requires trade with G20 nations to continue but because of Xi, China's trading partners are diversifying their sales and supply chains.
@pintohoo I don't have my head around the Taiwan situation ATM. That's because I had long term trust in China not act irrationally but I now have no faith in man in the centre or the faction that supports him. The buffoon is acting as though we are all living in the 1950's. There is also that other niggling question. Does Xi know something about Trump that we don't?
Hopefully my suspicions are wrong, the sabre rattling was for internal digestion and Xi will achieve a reasonable reproachment with Biden. We can but wait and see.
