This is only step one, but once again for all the pandemonium from some folks here about how China has been supposedly taking diplomatic L's left and right this year, China once again comes out on top. It did so in its trade war with Trump, with its trade war with the EU, and now with its diplomatic spat with Japan which was always just confined to a war of words rather than anything concrete.
I'm never one to advocate following leaders blindly, but when China has consistently come out on top time after time with each of these encounters, I feel confident in pushing back against naysayers.