There may be one good thing coming out of Putin’s invasion of the Ukraine. The world has come together against Russia and its President destroying the economy and testing whether Putin can survive.
Putin doesn’t have the control over his people that Xi has over the Chinese people but another peaceful rebellion could cripple China’s economy and foreign relations.

            Why is Xi so concerned about the Ukraine? Change Ukraine for Taiwan and Xi’s plans to take it by force if they won’t reunite on their own. The Taiwanese look at what happened in Hong Kong as a reminder of what can happen if they rejoined the mainland government. Xi has vowed to make rejoining happen and has been trying to intimidate Taiwan with military exercises near their sea boundary. These actions have been similar to Putin’s “exercises” before invading Ukraine.

            Xi’s question is what could happen if he invades. Would China suffer the consequences Russia has had levied against it? Russia will still be devastated and was a second rate economy without fossil fuel anyway. How much is the rest of the world willing to suffer to hurt China? Does he take the risk just to embellish his reputation and place in history? That is the most critical question of his life.