Gordon Chang

And normally you would think that if the Chinese were supple and flexible, which they have been in the past, that they would change their posture, but they haven't.

And so we have seen unyielding hostility on the part of Beijing, even though it's playing very poorly across the region.

And the Chinese know it.

They have to know that their message is falling flat and Japan is elevated in its status now in East Asia.

So I would have thought the Chinese would have pivoted by now, but they certainly haven't.

And I think that's an indication that Xi Jinping is just never going to change his view.

This is the way I think he's viewing it.

And the reason I say think is that although it's very clear about what he should be thinking, he's pretty isolated right now and he's very dogmatic, but he should be apoplectic right now.

And the reason is that he has seen the United States take his pawns off the board.

Venezuela, Cuba is in trouble.

Iran, if you look at the Middle East two years ago, China was becoming the dominant foreign power in the Middle East.

But then you had President Trump come back, that triumphant tour through the three Gulf states last May, and China has been basically removed from all sorts of places.

And if the war in Iran goes as President Trump thinks, and I think there's a pretty good chance of that.

then China's going to lose Iran, which is its second most important proxy after Russia.

So Xi Jinping should right now be extremely concerned.

But he has a very different mindset.

So I can't say definitely what's going through that iron skull of his.

There are ways which, you know, he has taken China really to the edge of the cliff in so many different ways.

And so that's why I think that

I really worry because I think Xi's perception of the world is very different than everybody else's.