The focus of this article is on the region’s “democratic powers.”  If the PRC finds itself with a deficit of friends, it might want to reflect on why that is.  Or they can go sulk in the corner with Rocket Boy, the Myanmar junta, and whatever other murderous thugs they have an affinity for (the Khmer Rouge of bygone ignominy, being just one example ).  If there was any justice  in the world “China” ought to mean Taiwan, HK, and whatever other outposts of civil Chinese modernity exist. Certainly not the totalitarian kleptocracy that prevails on the mainland.