I love how China has turned to this "wolf warrior diplomacy" to counter the critics' cry-baby diplomacy. I've been watching Marsha Blackburn's twitter account and I so far have only seen one comment about China today and it was repeat from yesterday. I bet she was shocked being called the big B. A racist being shocked only tells you how she expected a lopsided war of words in her favor. She was expecting a geisha-type reaction from China. Her racist views were okay but sexist comments are crossing the line. Same with Australia and remember even before Sweden upset that their officials' insults to China were now getting responses back and they called that a violation of their free speech because it might hold back insults from their officials. They hide behind human rights so somehow that means they can never be charged with human rights violations when they do commit them. Their free speech is violated when someone says something aggressive in return to their insults. This reminds again of the former Key Aviation forum where people would come up these us vs them scenarios with China and for their side, they could have any weapon even future speculated ones on their side but China was restricted to 70s and 80s Chinese weapons.
Well there is a time to stay restrained, and a time to fight fire with fire (punch back). The geopolitical situation for China right now is not in China's favor, considering the US platform dominance of social media. So you have to fight back strategically. In the case of Australia and Marsha Blackburn, they're standing on quicksand, and this is where China can win a fight.
As ansy1968 mentioned, now is no longer a time to bide your time and hide your capabilities, China's now ever-involved in world affairs. Previously China could just avoid fighting back, since no one showed massive interest in containing it. Now, multiple forces are arrayed against China, and if China just does nothing like in the past, it could cause massive damage to China's continued growth. So China has to pick its fights carefully, and make sure to win the ones that can be won. China still isn't in a dominant position when it can win every fight.