I've been in China, on and off, since 1996. Not living there full time but spending a month or two at a go. If I were to draw a graph of my own sense of optimis

I've been in China, on and off, since 1996. Not living there full time but spending a month or two at a go. If I were to draw a graph of my own sense of optimism about where China was headed it would be a strong upward curve from the start up until a couple of years after the 2008 Olympics. By the time Xi took power in 2012 I was still thinking that he might be a positive influence. In many ways his early life, the political downfall and persecution of his father and Xi's own persecution during the Cultural Revolution had me primed to think that he might be a reformer. Someone that could possibly carry on in the footsteps of Deng Xiaopeng and really bring China across the finish line and into the world as a powerful and positive force for the planet at large. Instead the opposite happened. By 2013 what Xi was about was starting to come into focus. He carried out "anti-corruption" reforms but it didn't take long to see that these really just targeted his opponents (and the occasional ally that was worth making an example of... in Chinese 杀鸡给猴看 trans. kill the chicken to show the monkey). As crackdowns on China's fledgling independent media and various minorities intensified the curve on my chart dips and starts to dip hard. Now it is as low as it has ever been and heading downwards in freefall. I declined an opportunity to go back this Spring and part of me is very sad about this but China is headed to a dark place and I don't want to be there when it happens. Unfortunately when the time comes it will drag much of our world down with it, I fear.