Nordstream, failing Ukraine war, awkward Syria sanctions + earthquake, Ohio disaster, France protests, etc. Great time for a scapegoat.

The demonization of China is politically advantageous. Publicizing incursions like this assists in the demonization (to be clear, it is think it’s warranted — the amount is espionage perpetrated by China on the US, corporate and cyber and governmental, Is insane)

Forced labour camps, genocide, authoritarian, cyber warfare against other nations, salami slicing neighbours, purposefully violating air space over other nations. I don't think China needs any demonisation. This is just showing its reality.

If anything both sides of the political spectrum doesn't want to get into showing China as the demon because unlike the previous cold war, they are not sure if they can win it or even force a draw. China is too powerful as it stands and getting more powerful as years pass while the current superpower is busy fighting it self with culture wars.

China is weakening. Centralization of power is making the government brittle. The government is deeply unpopular domestically, and there is no outlet for this resentment so it's continually building. China has no real allies; most countries, especially their neighbours, deeply distrust them. China's demographic outlook is terrible; the population has peaked and they've transitioned directly from enforced one-child to hardly anyone wanting more than one child.

China is indeed extremely powerful but it has peaked.

Its basically a pressure cooker. It's strong but there are no relief valves (apart from nationalistic saber rattling on various internal social media). When the pressure is sufficiently built up and the valves aren't sufficient they will blow but that is also why they keep taking provocative measures. To keep the valves working.

There's a war happening in Europe right now. That's a pretty major recent activity.

Don't worry, a border dispute involving Germany and Russia would never get out of hand.

The spy balloon was bigger than previous and visible from the ground. People were reporting it and forced government to respond.

China has been providing military support to Russia. With a certain lens, you can see the proxy war growing from Russia and Ukraine to Russia-China and Ukraine-NATO.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/brianbushard/2023/02/04/china-h...

https://www.ft.com/content/3146a413-9aba-4fd4-86a7-671bce0e6...

https://www.scmp.com/news/world/russia-central-asia/article/... (Ukraine’s Zelensky to China: there would be a ‘world war’ if you ally with Russia)