[Cronos]

You know, in my opinion - if it wasn't for Xi Jinping and his Mao-fixation, then China would have grown "under the radar" and really become a threat to the USA

it had a stellar bureaucratic technocracy with leaders revolving every 5 to 10 years and it was not ticking off the USA nor its neighbors. And Taiwan was getting more and more integrated economically and culturally with the mainland

Then came Xi and his 7 dashed line and his hardball with the "loans" given to China's potential vassal states and then his hardening stance against Taiwan squandered all of that away.

Hubris

[ifinnegan]

And Hong Kong.