| | | My take is that China population settling at 700M (50% decrease), but essentially of one-unified-people, might be a plus for where the world appears to be heading,
But 700 million aging and aged old far*s with no social safety net and no longer productive not so good. It is in this light that I don't get the penchant for all the social credit scores, intense surveillance, oppression, etc., The aging Chinese population will not have the energy to be any trouble, not that it matters to your masters.
And how about the rural/non-coastal old f*rts. Ignored as usual? Talk about a serious internal political problem in the making.
One-unified? Really? All Chinese hilariously happy old fa*ts marching in unison?
Don't forget that CCP has a long and rich history of major policy screw ups. One child, COVID lockdown, brutal suppression at Tiananmen Square, Red Guards, Cultural Revolution, Gang of Four, Australian sanctions, wolf warrior diplomacy, you name it. Past is prologue. And the common thread in all these major policy screw ups is Big Brother, who is brutal and autocratic.
You should not be surprised if the screw turns against you, as it has in the past. All that's necessary is for latest version of Comrade-in-Charge to get a crazy ideologically-derived hair up his arse, as has happened so many times in the past. No one is immune, no matter how rich. Just ask Jack Ma and countless others.
Authoritarian regimes have common attributes. First, they never admit mistakes. Second, as you readily admit, prosperity makes tyranny more bearable. However, the real basis for the CCP's power (which flows out of a barrel of a gun) is fear, not prosperity. And fear is simply not a sound basis for a nation to thrive. When fear disappears and prosperity falters, the regime either fails or becomes even more autocratic, with predictable results. A taste of that was the popular uprising against zero COVID lockdowns. And that is the reason why democracy, though chaotic and often imperfect, is a far superior model to the one China has adopted.
China's recent history is repeating itself. As you well know, the CCP recognized Mao's immense mistakes. Post-Mao, it attempted to prevent power from being concentrated in a top Core Comrade. And things worked out fairly well under this model, in which power was shared. Xi turned this model upside down, and is going down the well-trodden failed Maoist path.
Wash, rinse, repeat. |
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