Xi’s defensive ‘ring of steel’ comment, aimed at his domestic audience, clearly suggests that the US is being characterised as a clear and present threat to China’s national security.
This propaganda portrays the US provoking an unnecessary conflict by using ‘protection of Taiwanese independence’ as a reason to invade China, given that Taiwan is seen, by China, as part of ‘One China’.
In response Xi says he must defend his country’s integrity and protect his people.
Hence China’s massive military build-up and Xi’s interest in what can be learned from Putin’s ‘just war’ with a Ukraine dominated by the US.
So this is all ostensibly about flashpoints for the clash of civilisations, of western democracy clashing with autocracies run by a dictator, gradually building up to a catastrophic war.
In fact, it is about global economic power and spheres of influence and Australia is merely a pawn in the superpower game. The real war is being fought in the hollowed out, disillusioned, US middle class,while China, in stark contrast, experiences prosperity and relative stability in a massively growing middle class.
Empires come and go but most often the unmistakable seeds of decline and decay are sewn domestically.
