setting itself up

[unpakwon]

What does "setting itself up" mean in the following?

In the worst "wars from within" scenario, China is also setting itself up for its own environmental, political, and social destruction.

Is this saying "China is preparing itself for its own.....destruction?"

Thank you.

[David L.]

It doesn't mean 'preparing' in the sense of 'bracing itself' or 'taking what steps it can so that it is ready and equipped to meet the problem when it erupts'.

It means that China is making changes, or allowing certain unpopular changes to happen, or suppressing a ground-swell of popular feeling toward change, so that it is virtually inviting some internal conflict to erupt. China is sowing its own seeds of destruction of its present day society by the actions (or inactions) it is taking now.

[unpakwon]

Thank you again for the kind explanation.