Chinese menace in Asia and the Indo-Pacific.
Chinese belligerence in the last 15 years began with too much export money coming into their pockets. Their exports increased from $200 billion in 2000 to $1.5 trillion in 2010 and $3.1 billion by 2021. With that export cash, they built their infrastructure and started to modernize their military. They began their military spending spree from $100 billion in 2010 to $260 billion in 2021. This was a phenomenal rise with no visible enemy in sight. They began inviting military trouble when Xi Jinping became the president of China in 2013. He tripled the military budget and began new problems for all the outlying states of the China Sea. He revived old land/Sea claims which have been defunct for a century or two. Their main claim lay over all islands in the China Sea and challenged US to leave Taiwan and let it be integrated with the mainland.
He also reinvigorated their long-standing claim to the Himalayan mountains to humiliate India. The Galwan Valley clash of June 2020 was part of it. In Galwan valley, they did not succeed much and lost more personnel, but lied about their losses. Nobody won this battle, but China's prestige was shaken when India stood up to it.
If the media analysis is to be believed then Chinese were planning an invasion of Taiwan in 2022 summer. But they were thwarted when Russia started to invade Ukraine. Moreover, the US has repeatedly told the Chinese that their invasion of Taiwan will be thwarted by US power in the Pacific. This knocked some sense into Xi’s head. He put invasion on hold. Moreover Covid -19 returned to China with a vengeance and shut down its cities and industrial output. It also had some impact on Xi’s plans.
Today, Chinese belligerence is at new heights. It has to be dealt with jointly, hence the formation of QUAD has been firmed up. He will defend the Indo-Pacific region and assist in arresting the Chinese at the Himalayan Pass.
With all this happening and with India showing its muscles and US working to harness the joint powers of QUAD, it would appear the Chinese menace has been checked, but who knows their mind.
The Chinese have lately built military power to back their claims. Its main emphasis is to build sea power. It’s naval ships have doubled to 355 ships with two aircraft carriers. Ironically, this newly built navy is untrained and inexperienced in naval battles. Furthermore, newly constructed ships are copied technology and are of poor quality, so no match for their opponents. Their Airforce has a few new fighter planes, but much of it is Russian copy of1980s technology. A few stealth quality fighters have been copied from the West but these lack endurance to fight an air battle. Also, their much vaunted troops failed miserably in Vietnam in 1979 and again failed in India's Galwan Valley, although their prestige prevents them from admitting losses.
All in all, the Chinese have improved their military, as have India, Taiwan, and all the other Indo-Pacific states. Therefore, any Chinese misdeed can be properly handled.