China is not acting rationally at the moment. They tried to hide what happened and failed. They tried to exert influence to hide what happened and failed. They tried to bully the world to avoid an investigation and failed.
They acted stupidly and have chosen to double down. I don’t pretend to understand it other than their external actions must have some internal justifications that we cannot see.
Xi is not looking very good at the moment to the world.
Interesting how business elites and the communists are working together to end any freedom in Hong Kong. That is much like many business elites and the leftists in the U.S.
If the democrats could they would act towards us exactly like Beijing does toward Hong Kong. They have the will but not the ability...yet.
Like the democrat party everywhere here they ruin what is good.