> I think China has a lot of traits in common with fascist states. it might not tick all the boxes in a definition, but it ticks far more than the typical dicta

> I think China has a lot of traits in common with fascist states. it might not tick all the boxes in a definition, but it ticks far more than the typical dictatorship. It's very hard for me to see how. Even taking everything you said about China at face value (some of which I might take issue with): - Almost every dictator tries (with mixed success) to create a personality cult. - Almost every totalitarian state tries to build nationalist fervor to keep people in-line - Almost every totalitarian state uses state violence to maintain control - Almost every culture believes itself to be superior, and most successful politician try to exploit that (with the exception of a few on the far left) ... and so on. I think a necessary and requisite element for fascism is an army of thugs and a pervasive level of fear. That's different from, for example, an army of educated bureaucrats deciding to stick problem individuals in a gulag. The brownshirts were never gotten rid of, but rather were institutionalized into the SA and to some extent, the SS. They were still thugs and relatively indiscriminate violence. China lacks thugs. If you don't stick your head up, I don't see many people fear the government. People generally keep their heads down, fall in line, and lead normal lives. I don't know if it's core to fascism, but expansionism and imperialism is also rather lacking in China. There are some disputes, mind, you, about places which China thinks should belong, namely Tibet, Taiwan, Mongolia, a little bit of Russia (formerly Manchuria), a few mountains near India, and a few islands, but critically, those ambitions have not changed in nearly a century.