Comment: Anyone criticizing Xi and/or the Party publicly in China will be arrested and punished.  By contrast with liberal democracies, that is "ruthless."  FYI, the PRC does not have such freedoms as elections by the populace, speech, assembly, and press.

Agreed that the Middle-East is a disaster due to the extreme "ruthlessness" of the engaged parties.

You have the timeline wrong.  After SK installed THAAD China objected and severely curtailed
SK interests in the PRC.  Now that Xi has seen that policy was self-defeating for the PRC more business-friendly relations have been restored.

Naturally, the PRC has a right to self-defense.  It does not have a right to crush Tibet or illegally take over the S. China Sea.

Agreed that the US has become a banana republic.

 In 2016, the MSM, State, the DoJ, the Russians, the IC, academia, and the presidency were merely branches of the Clinton campaign. State still refuses to release Hillary's emails subpoenaed by Congress in 2016.

Res ipsa loquitur.