I tend to think of China's recent activities as a parallel to Japan's in the early 30s (which was then a US "friend", educating theirs in US colleges and receiving US tech, I suppose as a Russian hedge). It would seem that while China is developing a scary advantage in missiles, making other Countries financially dependent (through Belt and Road) and colonizing the China Sea, they are foolishly isolating themselves, with few friends. Meanwhile, the US/Europe/SE Asia would seem to be rapidly weaning themselves from China economically. China's brazen attitude may help it short-term (through the element of surprise), but the US allies would seem to be able to catch up quickly, then overwhelm China. What is scary is the "why is China so brazen" question, as they are not stupid and know about Japan's expansionist mistakes. Do they know something that we don't (a super weapon perhaps?), or are they simply drunk with nationalism/wealth/arrogance at the moment? Once the US/Europe/SE Asian alliances are secured and military/tech advantages restored (particularly the moving of Taiwanese chip making facilities to the US mainland and better missile defenses), some sort of negotiations need to take place before a nuclear holocaust happens. Thus knowing their long-term disadvantages, China may move to gobble up Taiwan (and other SE Asian Tigers, plus Guam?) very soon.