[roca]

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.

[allisdust]

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.