>One of the saddest stories of the 21st century is China’s decline into despotism. They didn’t have democracy, but they had internal political competition and a

>One of the saddest stories of the 21st century is China’s decline into despotism. They didn’t have democracy, but they had internal political competition and a peaceful transfer of power. In an alternate world, Xi is comfortably retired while China and America drive a new century of human prosperity. I think the US and the west would be doing the exact same things to China regardless of what happened with Xi. When China decided to design phones instead of manufacturing them for American companies, that's when their fate was sealed and the west (and Japan) took action. China wanted to move up the value chain. The west wanted China to remain as their factory. The "China bad" propaganda is just to convince western commoners that doing these things to China is justified. It's about economics and power. Always is. Always has been.