5 ms·

This is it. China might be authoritarian, but it's acting way less eratic than the US right now.

janice1999 2y ago
That may be in part to their 'president for life'. Leaders are not immortal though and transitions between them have seen large and sometimes catastrophic changes. China designed its modern political system to avoid that, only for Xi to undo it and purge younger potential challengers.
- jimbob45 2y ago
  For life and is 71 in arguably the most stressful job in the world. The risk of mental decline cannot be ignored, particularly as he has now served longer than any US president in all of history. Although I say that and then I went down the rabbit hole of trying to find which individual had the longest tenure of presidency and vice presidency combined. It seems like it’s either Nixon, HW Bush, or Biden.
  - brucehoult 2y ago
    As the US president is more or less in the same position as the monarch in the UK -- the main *official* task is to approve or reject legislation already passed by parliament -- you should perhaps look at the 63 years 216 days Victoria reigned, or 70 years 214 days of Elizabeth II, both far exceeding any recent US, Chinese, or Russian supreme leader. I recently noticed with horror that my birth is now closer to the end of Victoria's reign in 1901 than it is to today.
akie 2y ago
The US is not just erratic, it wouldn't be a stretch to call them hostile towards the EU right now.
- hsuduebc2 2y ago
  If not exactly hostile then definetly untrustworthy, they certainly show that they are willing to blackmail their partners. No one can be surprised that others want to get rid of influence over critical products. I strongly support it. It's like with russian gas once again, even the root of the problem is the same. One man with infinite power and no accountability for his actions. Just for clarification. I don't blame Americans, but at least from my perspective, this electoral system is very radical and gives almost "absolute power" to a person or party that almost always has marginally more support. You do not need to compromise by creating coalitions etc. In the end, it is the fault of us Europeans who blindly believed that any successful candidate would be in our favour and perceived as friendly. Although everyone understands how fragile elections are, this was naively ignored.
- LazarWolf_ 2y ago
  That’s a pretty insane take that ignores decades of actual history.
  - akie 2y ago
    You need to believe what your eyes are seeing. Canadians are taking Trump's threats very seriously, as is Greenland, as is Panama, as is the EU. And for good reason.
  - fsflover 2y ago
    You mean the history of enshittification by the monopolistic US companies with the lack of any regulation in their country? Also, forcing horrible IP laws on Europe. More details: https://pluralistic.net/2025/02/26/ursula-franklin/ https://pluralistic.net/2025/02/26/ursula-franklin/ And the history of NSA spying on the whole world, see PRISM.
pipes 2y ago
"right now" being the key phrase here. On what length of time due you judge stability? The last 75 years or so in China... well amoung other things they killed over 50 million of their own people with a man made famine. The question is if the institutions that produced USA can hold. China on the other hand lacks the self correcting mechanisms that USA has built in.
- ben_w 2y ago
  > The last 75 years or so in China... well amoung other things they killed over 50 million of their own people with a man made famine. Such an event is also one reason India got my grandparent's generation to leave. And the one about 175 years ago in Ireland probably contributed to both the (eventual) Irish home rule movement and the writing of the Communist Manifesto. While the Great Leap Forward's famine was avoidable in theory, I think that the historical examples of so many others having similar experiences during the transition from agrarian to industrial, shows that in practice the mistakes are very easy to fall into.
- nostrademons 2y ago
  China has a tendency to self-destruct every 300-400 years. The interesting thing is that many regions of the globe have a tendency to self-destruct every 300-400 years. Europe had major continent-wide cataclysms with WW1/2 in the 1900s; the Wars of Religion in the early 1600s; and the Hundred Years War + Black Death + Mongol Conquests in the 1300s. The Holy Roman Empire lasted from about 900 AD to around 1300 AD. The Roman Republic lasted about 500 years; the Roman Empire lasted another 400-500. I think the logic might be that China just had their civilization-ending cataclysm, and so they're on the upswing now. Ditto Europe. This is probably not the end of the United States either, more like the Crisis of the 3rd Century. But it's just as logical to look back on the 400-year cycle and think "Better invest in the countries that have already had their crisis and dealt with it than ones that are starting to decay internally" than to look back on the last 75 years and think "Wow, that was chaotic, the next 75 years will be equally chaotic."
- omikun 2y ago
  > they killed over 50 million of their own people with a man made famine ... and they learned nothing from it.

janice1999 2y ago

That may be in part to their 'president for life'. Leaders are not immortal though and transitions between them have seen large and sometimes catastrophic changes. China designed its modern political system to avoid that, only for Xi to undo it and purge younger potential challengers.

jimbob45 2y ago
For life and is 71 in arguably the most stressful job in the world. The risk of mental decline cannot be ignored, particularly as he has now served longer than any US president in all of history. Although I say that and then I went down the rabbit hole of trying to find which individual had the longest tenure of presidency and vice presidency combined. It seems like it’s either Nixon, HW Bush, or Biden.
- brucehoult 2y ago
  As the US president is more or less in the same position as the monarch in the UK -- the main *official* task is to approve or reject legislation already passed by parliament -- you should perhaps look at the 63 years 216 days Victoria reigned, or 70 years 214 days of Elizabeth II, both far exceeding any recent US, Chinese, or Russian supreme leader. I recently noticed with horror that my birth is now closer to the end of Victoria's reign in 1901 than it is to today.

akie 2y ago

The US is not just erratic, it wouldn't be a stretch to call them hostile towards the EU right now.

hsuduebc2 2y ago
If not exactly hostile then definetly untrustworthy, they certainly show that they are willing to blackmail their partners. No one can be surprised that others want to get rid of influence over critical products. I strongly support it. It's like with russian gas once again, even the root of the problem is the same. One man with infinite power and no accountability for his actions. Just for clarification. I don't blame Americans, but at least from my perspective, this electoral system is very radical and gives almost "absolute power" to a person or party that almost always has marginally more support. You do not need to compromise by creating coalitions etc. In the end, it is the fault of us Europeans who blindly believed that any successful candidate would be in our favour and perceived as friendly. Although everyone understands how fragile elections are, this was naively ignored.
LazarWolf_ 2y ago
That’s a pretty insane take that ignores decades of actual history.
- akie 2y ago
  You need to believe what your eyes are seeing. Canadians are taking Trump's threats very seriously, as is Greenland, as is Panama, as is the EU. And for good reason.
- fsflover 2y ago
  You mean the history of enshittification by the monopolistic US companies with the lack of any regulation in their country? Also, forcing horrible IP laws on Europe. More details: https://pluralistic.net/2025/02/26/ursula-franklin/ https://pluralistic.net/2025/02/26/ursula-franklin/ And the history of NSA spying on the whole world, see PRISM.

pipes 2y ago

"right now" being the key phrase here. On what length of time due you judge stability? The last 75 years or so in China... well amoung other things they killed over 50 million of their own people with a man made famine. The question is if the institutions that produced USA can hold. China on the other hand lacks the self correcting mechanisms that USA has built in.

ben_w 2y ago
> The last 75 years or so in China... well amoung other things they killed over 50 million of their own people with a man made famine. Such an event is also one reason India got my grandparent's generation to leave. And the one about 175 years ago in Ireland probably contributed to both the (eventual) Irish home rule movement and the writing of the Communist Manifesto. While the Great Leap Forward's famine was avoidable in theory, I think that the historical examples of so many others having similar experiences during the transition from agrarian to industrial, shows that in practice the mistakes are very easy to fall into.
nostrademons 2y ago
China has a tendency to self-destruct every 300-400 years. The interesting thing is that many regions of the globe have a tendency to self-destruct every 300-400 years. Europe had major continent-wide cataclysms with WW1/2 in the 1900s; the Wars of Religion in the early 1600s; and the Hundred Years War + Black Death + Mongol Conquests in the 1300s. The Holy Roman Empire lasted from about 900 AD to around 1300 AD. The Roman Republic lasted about 500 years; the Roman Empire lasted another 400-500. I think the logic might be that China just had their civilization-ending cataclysm, and so they're on the upswing now. Ditto Europe. This is probably not the end of the United States either, more like the Crisis of the 3rd Century. But it's just as logical to look back on the 400-year cycle and think "Better invest in the countries that have already had their crisis and dealt with it than ones that are starting to decay internally" than to look back on the last 75 years and think "Wow, that was chaotic, the next 75 years will be equally chaotic."
omikun 2y ago
> they killed over 50 million of their own people with a man made famine ... and they learned nothing from it.