The whole “China long game” feels so lazy. Did you forget that this is the same Chinese government that isn’t resilient enough to handle challenges to it (HK, Taiwan, Tibet, Tianimen Square (sp?)) and it’s the same government where Evergrande is happening because local governments in China just feel like reporting numbers because they’re scared that Xi will get mad if they report real numbers instead of “growth forever”.

China also has a huge population problem coming and it’s likely that they have already peaked economically (you’ll notice states like China get much more belligerent and bellicose as they fail ala Russia) and even that is due to government mismanagement.

So, my point is China isn’t some grand strategic master. They are a country with their own problems, likely even worse than most countries because problem exposition is strongly discouraged.

This doesn’t mean that America or any other country doesn’t have problems, but China isn’t particularly special here.