Creative Speculation

He is not unlike Putin, liking the centralized power at his fingertips, but probably has a better grasp of strategic reality than Putin did or does. China has major financial problems with a huge commercial real estate debt bubble and folks like Apple and others working to pull mass production from China to more stable countries. Problem for businesses dealing with China is the Central Committee will decide to make a hard left turn with no notice on any number of issues from Covid lockdowns to who and what can enter or leave the country to capital controls and on and on. Selling US bonds and increasing their western hard currency reserve gives them more flexibility as to how to solve economic issues.

All that said, a war over Taiwan would likely not end well for China in the long term assuming they get sanctioned similarly to what Russia is experiencing. While Russia can still sell its major export of fossil fuels at a discount to a few willing buyers, China can't find enough alternative buyers for its wide range and quantities of produced goods to sustain it's economy. Chinese won't like losing their jobs and getting called up in a major military draft any more than Russians did. The point that countries in dire straights are often tempted to take big gambles is the risk.