Wow what an article. > As for quantum computing and artificial intelligence, only the severely ill-informed think that the Chinese are ahead. As late as 2020,

Wow what an article. > As for quantum computing and artificial intelligence, only the severely ill-informed think that the Chinese are ahead. As late as 2020, Huawei’s boasts about its supposedly superior Kirin 980 microprocessors were widely believed; they even deceived poor Xi Jinping. Yes, they were indeed quite good but the technology was not Huawei’s — it belonged to the UK and US, which meant that Trump’s National Security Council could and did shut down Kirin production and much of Huawei’s as a whole with a couple of phone calls. I had no idea. I almost want to ask if it's really true, like many hyperbolic things in there, but of course the author being the new Clausewitz and all that...ok I'll keep reading. > Always improbable, G-2 became impossible when Xi Jinping arrived. For him only G-1 is good enough. Not because he is a megalomaniac but the opposite: he thinks, accurately, that unless the Party establishes an unchallenged hegemony, in which its rule is deemed superior to democratic governance, Communist China will collapse just as Soviet rule did. He is right. Fascinating. The bit about pork prices at the end too. There is a lot of subjective-perceptive certainty here. It makes for quite an article. > Nor was I of any help: born in Romania’s Arad, I answered nu sunt sigur (“I am not sure”) to his “sad day” incantation. Utterly startled to hear me speak in his language, and totally embarrassed by my remark, he went to Schlesinger to be reassured that we were not all Romanians sent to catch him out. And funny. This is somebody who is convinced they have a hell of a splash to share, about things in general. Can't say he doesn't at least deliver from a narrative standpoint!