I am still struggling to understand the purpose of Xi's visit to US. As it turns out, US secured concessions from China (resumption of military communications and fentanyl deal) without giving anything in return. To add to the humiliation, Biden called Xi a "dictator" and now U.S. Defense Secretary announced that US will continue to violate China's sovereignty and territorial integrity. I must call it like I see it. APEC summit was an L for China. I hope that Chinese leadership knows what it's doing when it comes to US and that there is an explanation for their timid approach as of late.
This was China deliberately giving up more so that they can reduce the tension and avoid further US sanctions, trade wars, tech war, investment war escalation. China is the one trying to rise up, US has already risen and is in a stronger position. So, for China to achieve fast growth, they need to keep their head down and avoid losing access to the west. This maybe humialiting but its the most beneficial and fastest way for China to achieve economic growth.
But most likely the west will still continue to escalate and continue decoupling, sanctioning and so on. But if China can slow that down just a little bit, if they can buy time for even 5-10 years, that will still give China more wealth and prosperity and better able to withstand the decoupling in the future.
The west is desperate to stop China and will do anything to stop it, even if it harms their own advantages and economy. They are on a war of attrition mode against China. So, China is playing defensive warfare.
