Long-term military containment with ships escorting oil tankers through the Strait may be the best among bad options. Future congresses and presidents would need to maintain it though, and it would be expensive.
Chinese leaders believe in Marxist Leninism. They believe that the world will inevitably become Marxist and their Leninist party can speed up this great end. They believe that China deserves to be the world’s greatest power, that it once was, and that it will be again, and the Chinese Communist Party will lead China to this greatness while at the same time leading the world to its Marxist future.
Trump’s overzealous anti-DEI push in the military that has led to the canceling of promotions of mostly nonwhite straight males, may be hurting the military by decreasing the number of quality nonwhite straight males who want to serve in the military, as well as hurting their morale.