Ok, you asked for it.
Imagine a clock. Put Peace at 12 and Total War at 6. At 5 past you have civil unrest, 10 past terrorism and State/non State actors in unattributed agitation and violence. By quarter past you have border incidents and open competition. At 20 past you have Limited War; something like the Falklands where means and geography are confined. By half past,, you have Total War with all means available. At 31 past you could go Nuclear. On the way back up to noon you have all the mopping up, nation rebuilding and messy stuff as you need to re-assert normality.
Now, overlay on that an ideology that seeks World domination if not actual control, a kind of 21C colonialism. That is, in effect, what the CCP aim to achieve. They take a very long view untroubled by inconveniences like elections. Their biggest impediments are internal power struggles and endemic corruption. The ancient Chinese General said the highest art in warfare is winning without fighting.
Make no mistake the CCP regards itself locked in hostilities short of open warfare to subdue the West without resorting to open warfare if at all possible. It pursues its aims through espionage of all forms from buying information to opinion formers, intellectual property theft, hacking, you name it. Openly it bullies and threatens and seeks to coerce. Its laughable claims on the whole South China Sea deep into the territories of its Southern neighbours typify the approach. It cannot abide Taiwanese economic success and vibrant democracy because of the mirror it represents. Harking back to the Chinese civil war is pure hokum. The next phases are playing out with India, the rival regional power and Australia hitherto valued for its coal and minerals but now being altogether too independent-minded. At the back of all of this is traditional enmity to Japan and getting the US back to Hawaii or even San Diego. Right now they fear a shooting war against the US but for how long? Domestic problems have historically led to foreign adventures and gross miscalculations. They need to be contained but not provoked.
Forget the economic pygmy and nuisance Russia. Putin is on the downhill slope and a succession battle beckons. China is the greatest threat to the rest of the globe and Trump their greatest obstacle. Biden? Looks like they have already invested heavily.
