China Syndrome

Pay close attention to what is transpiring right now in China. 

This may be instructive. 

I should hope the Chinese people are too smart and too talented to settle for this dictator for too much longer. He has been a disaster for China and the Chinese people.

What's happening in China today is nothing short of another cultural revolution. The insanity and hubris of "zero COVID" might just be Xi's undoing. Yet as with the rule of dictators probably not.

 

Yet. 

The general problem with dictators, whether Putin or Xi, is their need to project omniscience. This means they can never retreat on a decision even if it's obvious to most that it was wrong (zero Covid and the Ukraine invasion come to mind). Dictators sense, probably correctly, that to admit they made a mistake and change plans would project weakness and possibly mean the end of their rule. So they double down on disastrous policies and cause more pain for their citizens and others. It often ends in brutal crackdowns like in China in 1989 and today in Iran. As messy as things get in the U.S., current events in China and Russia reinforce my belief in the importance of our democracy and in pushing back against those who might try to end it.