It indeed looks more and more like a game of chicken. The US is ratcheting up the pressure on China, seemingly to the breaking point. Some may fear that this will force Xi to make radical decisions. I, however, would beg to disagree. When under pressure, Xi tends to back down more often than not. Examples were with ZTE where he agreed to pay $1B in fines, and recently when he quickly abandoned his signature zero-COVID policies while facing mounting resistance from the Chinese people. So Xi WILL blink first.
