China can't afford sanctions. They are an export economy and their own population is dying out. They have to export Even More Even Harder, or they collapse.
Discussion
That's the minimum scale of production I was talking about.
Human leaders are social primates, just more coked-up and psychopathic than most.
When growth slows and their underling's social climbs stall, they will play chicken with the War Train to bluff a larger share of the loot.
I think this is well underway already...