What if Xi Jinping just isn't that competent?

> These are all unforced errors on Xi’s part. Why alienate India? Why push against Southeast Asian countries?

No clear these were 'unforced errors' or active actions by China.

My understanding of what happened at the Indian border is that India effectively broke the status quo by building new roads and moving troops, which was reported by many media (not only "pro-China shills" as some would say), and of course the current Indian government is extremely nationalistic and rather aggressive, so it's much less black and white that some would like us to believe. Neither side want this to escalate and they both defused the situation since. The situation has been that way for decades.

The South China Sea is a long standing claim by China that even predates the PRC (hence why Taiwan essentially has the same claims over the area). Nothing really new here (and certainly the relations with Vietnam have not been good for decades).

Belt and Road and "Made in China 2025" may have been mistakes in that they were too noisy and, for the latter, perhaps too early so as to create alarm and reactions in the West. Not clear how it is a debacle at this point, though.

All in all, China's economy and capability are increasing and as a consequence it is more and more assertive in pushing its interests. It does not mean the West should be a pushover or that China is 'alienating' everyone, it means that China is no longer a pushover. We need to realise that this is inevitable and China is still much less powerful and active than the US and Europe are or have been. There's a significant amount of FUB in reports on China.

The danger is that Xi believes that the time is right to "re-intergrate" Taiwan.

I think he is competent, just not at guiding an economy or making the rest of east asia not angry at you. It takes a lot of skill and will-to-power to get to his current position. Stalin was similar, being a genius at getting and holding power but not so good at a lot of other aspects of running an empire.

Then XI is just like any other Free World leaders?

Xi Jinping's cohort of Millenial decision makers on the political scene in China made the correct choice, as did Japan's and Europe's, to fast track highspeed rail over hyperjumbojet A380 for long distance overland travel. That's one datapoint. Leadership, such as the directors on the board at Boeing, they don't need to be competent. That is for the execs, managers, workers todo.