I am never a supporter of Xi even though I understood what he was trying to do.  His "engineer" point of view is only good for solving hard issues not soft issues.  His hardline stance since taking office is a bit premature. 2 decade premature.  Then again, who knows what is going to happen.

What's scary is this summer onwards.  The looming food crisis is going to create a lot of problems in middle income and lower income countries.  You can see "regime change" galore this fall.  Can China come to support these governments? Even Sri Lanka was left to beg from IMF. That set a chain of events.  Indonesia is now getting cold feet.  That's an important ally to have.

Now we got neocons goading China to attack Taiwan.  Can Xi back down from doing so without losing face?