It works for North Korea apparently.

State Religion is the new thing to replace the old secular dystopian madness, as I said before.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-parliament-xi-boddhisatva/xi-jinpings-latest-tag-living-buddhist-deity-chinese-official-says-idUSKCN1GK0V6

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9MKDWvtk6Q

People told us that those of us that said the elections were rigged under HRC or Demoncrats, were crazy and making stuff out of thin air.

Who were the crazy ones, the Normal Americans or the abnormal ones?

Press them as much as you can, then retreat hoping to get concessions out of it. They got a lot out of that during President Hussein’s reign of power.

There are open source analysts on Chinese foreign policy. You can get English translated scripts of chinese language programs, the state controlled CCP whatever. It’s like China’s version of the Jesuits, producing world wide propaganda for anyone that wants to utilize the language.

I also find useful the various primary sources of Westerners in China who tour the country and put their videos of road bike trips online, funded by Patreon.

All of this gives us a completely different view than what the District of Columbia tells us.

You can be a government official and not a Party official. Think of government officials as civil servants. Even ministers sometimes aren’t party members. This has only happened for science and technology. Technically, the CPC governs in a United Front. There are 8 parties that accept the CPC’s leadership.

Every town or city has a mayor but also a Party Secretary. Most members of government at the lower levels are party members. I’d say it’s around 70%. At the higher levels, it’s more like 90%.

Also, under current law, party members can’t be arrested by normal police or tried by normal courts. If the police and courts want to tango with a party member, they first have to vet it with the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.

Xi doing this isn’t much of a shock. As soon as he came to power, he started going after people that could challenge his authority. He was sent down to the countryside by Mao. He understands the relationship between political power and violence.

If China should ever replace America as the sole superpower, it will rule the world with self-justified cruelty.
* * *
Replace “China” with any non-Anglo-Saxon (aka ex-British-Empire) country and you would still be correct.
The way the Anglos are going now, you will soon be able to add them to the list.
See Mark Steyn especially on the rise of fascist political-correctness in Canada and Oz, but it’s happening here as well.
God help the world if the Social Justice Warriors get control of the government again and decide they need to project some more of the “leading from behind” and R2P diplomacy that we just lived through.

The people are very enterprising. It snowed in Beijing the night we arrived. The next morning as we were leaving to visit the Great Wall, there were vendors outside the hotel hawking warm hats, gloves, and scarves. The street salesmen with watches pinned to their coat linings were ubiquitous in the tourist areas. I got the feeling that a free market economy in China would be a real winner. Instead, it’s a command economy and they try to use aggressive over production tactics to drive competition out of the market – as in steel and aluminum. Very underhanded and devious.

Going through airport security there was an experience. They were very gruff, rough, and invasive. They seemed to take delight in pushing the Yankee devil around a bit. I was steamed after each encounter. But I endured with clenched jaw, knowing protest would get me no where.

Just immersing yourself in the vehicle traffic around Beijing or mingling in crowds gave me the feeling of being in an overwhelming, unorganized, teeming mass of humanity. Quite different from anywhere I have ever been. I imagine the Communists feel a fear of losing control of this vast mass of humanity.

We traveled by ship down river from Shanghai to the Yellow Sea. The riverbanks were lined with plants belching coal smoke and discharging foul looking liquids into the river. A level of pollution that I didn’t believe existed anywhere anymore. With our environmental regulations, is it any wonder our basic industries find it hard to compete?

I would hope that China would become less worldly ambitious and more interested in becoming a free market that is raising the standard of living for more of its people. What I saw on my visit indicates that isn’t likely.

Maybe our China expat could add some thoughts to the discussion.

Jordan Peterson posits that hate + resentment + arrogance = the manifestation of evil.

If China should ever replace America as the sole superpower, it will rule the world with self-justified cruelty.