Were we not told that Xi had declared himself chairman for life? How can we believe anything about this evil person and his evil CCP? And why should we take any notice of an economist's Tweets? They struggle with their own trade. They have no particular insight into politics and political ideology, or even people.

"Mortgage rebellions". "Protests". Xi "has to listen". What nonsense! Xi just has to set the PLA onto any dissenters. He runs a Communist dictatorship. Get real!

if some one starts the prosses .world wide to over turn the one china policy .

1 china dose not follow a world rule based system

a, south china sea

b, human rights west china concentration camps

c, no freedom of religion

showing that the bully tactics will not achieve the dream of a one china ,it will weaken Xi support .

had the world stood up to Germany when they moved into Alsace Lorraine we could have had different history

Good! I hope he is replaced by someone less dictatorial/hostile and more concilitary. After all, one catches more flies with a teaspoon of honey than a jar of vinegar!
Alan B.

What's with the negativity Jack?!

Xi, who sees himself in the infallible Mao mold of Leader for Life,

...might not even need the PLA to suppress doubters of Xi's authoritah.

Young CCP ideologues who seeks seats in China's "Parliament" and China's main security service (MSS) can exert subtle pressure on doubters who dare to think Xi cannot rule forever.

And hey, Xi stepping up the struggle against Taiwan can cause doubters to rally around Xi as Commandfer-in-Chief, in time of conflict. This works for US Presidents - why not for China's President Xi?

.

For a long time, I thought it would be impossible to manage a country like China as a free democratic society given its huge population of 1.4 billion people. The Chinese are such an unruly lot – smart, sharp, quick to pounce on every opportunity, amazingly resourceful and innovative, good hard-working people, and exceptionally entrepreneurial.

But then India is a free democratic country, evidently governable, whose population of 1.5 billion has surpassed that of China in 2022.

It is, nevertheless, interesting to note that the GDP of China was 6 times that of India in 2021 : $18,000 billion for China and $3,000 billion for India.

Whereas 43 years previously, in 1978, China’s GDP was only $150 billion, and India’s GDP was $137 billion.

So, what happened in 1978 ?

That was the year Deng Xiaoping opened up and reformed the Chinese economy while maintaining an iron grip on the Marxist-Leninist and Mao Zedong ideology of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in the political system of the PRC, known as the people's democratic dictatorship.

As a result, more than 800 million people have been lifted out of poverty and China is about to surpass the US as the world’s leading economy. Parallel to that, Tibet, Hong Kong, Macau, and Xinjiang have all seen their collective and individual freedoms severely restricted, student protests in Tiananmen were brutally suppressed, mass surveillance systems have been introduced to control Chinese citizens, and Taiwan’s free democracy is constantly under threat by mainland China.

Was all this really necessary to reduce poverty and boost the economy so spectacularly?

That is debatable.

In 2020 the Chinese Government announced the elimination of extreme poverty in rural areas under the current poverty line. Whereas in India, in 2019, according to the World Bank, extreme poverty was estimated at 10% of the population. Also, India dropped from Free to Partly Free status in the Freedom in the World 2021 Report, which noted :

« Modi and his party [the BJP, ruling Hindu nationalist movement] are tragically driving India itself toward authoritarianism. »

.

Much of the actions round Taiwan from PRC maybe more about Xi needing to shore up domestic support (& fear?).

Fact is, China is facing massive demographic issues due to ageing and the one child policy, allegedly informed by a US demographer.

There is much research and articles on coming global population peak, but described as 'counter intuitive' by researchers Bricker & Ibbitson (Empty Planet), and Niall Ferguson has published related aka US vs. China, the former has much more powder dry due to immigration.

'China's Demographics Spell Decline Not Domination. American mortality is up while fertility and immigration are down. Unlike China’s baby bust, however, at least one of these is fixable.'

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2022-08-14/niall-ferguson-demographics-are-a-us-headache-but-nightmare-for-china