Re : The CCP and their plans ...
No, this is not where CCP tries for Taiwan.
They may threaten, make it look like they are about to, little step by step -
and eventually if not slapped, they will go for it.
The incremental way has worked for CCP so far, why stop ?
Ever since the incident of April 2001 when Chinese jet clipped the wing of a propeller driven US Nvy EP -3 in international airspace over the South China Sea
where Beijing detained the crew of 24 for 11 days, stripped the plane of electro gear and refused to let it fly out, the CCP got it's balls up.
Bush 2's response was to make what Beijing took to be an apology and offered a compensatory payment.
Wise move or likely, not, CCP took it as ' US will not push back very hard '
and so look where we are now ...
Little by little ...
some of these ' islands' were just just barely above waterline.
But that was enough for maritime law and for the CCP to build on.
Once you have an island, concrete, sand bars poured on, things get filled in -
hey, that's 'new land'.
A thing to own.
Wrap it in that flag, citizens will be proud, commenters on South China Post will rejoice.
Little by little - Tibet was filled w broken green glass Chinese beer bottles until people forgot it, Uighurs felt the cold Han hand ( reaching for their internal organs on a hot day ), ' Belt & Road ' expanded, one deal in Dijbouti became huge hangers for military boats, HK lost many rights and felt looming big CCP brothers.
Now, it's we will push out any other nation's boats in what we call our space.
After building artificial islands, China is using large fleets of ostensibly civilian boats to press other countries’ vessels out of disputed waters.
www.nytimes.com
Will just put it out there again, both Vlad and Xi were caught out a bit by Biden's win.
Vlad would have moved on another country.
Then came Nov. - Jan.
His inner electronic domain is up for a Biden ordered electro push back and will in next weeks have an internal internet attack of one kind or another.
Xi's 2 diplomats red in the face angry over everything from Australian wine to Europe's push back, Africa's push back, clothes maker's who used cotton from Far West and are trying to bark a fierce game.
Xi saw what Vlad did in the US systems for years now already and was planning to continue his own state backed hacks ( X KGB and current CCP such big partners right ? ).
He stopped because he could at least sense Biden was not going to play things the same as Bush or Obama.
Source of this COVID being just one other unclear matter in the mess of things in general.