NOT A SMALL FEAT: WHAT THE U.S. AND WEST MUST DO TO COUNTER CHINA

The Chinese Communist Party is far too strong to be overthrown; its surveillance state and vise-like grip on the Chinese people have ensured its longevity, which is of course its ultimate objective.

There is not much reason to believe that anything fundamental will change for the foreseeable future in China’s relationship with America or indeed the world. Don’t be fooled by China’s current temporary economic and political malaise. The government’s policies are deliberate, comprehensive, uncompromising, and becoming even more severe. Given the Chinese government’s readoption of Maoist era policies during Xi’s tenure and particularly intrusive surveillance tactics (made “normalized” by the Covid-19 pandemic) at home, it would be both uncharacteristic and unrealistic for the government to pursue a Xi Jinping Thought “light” set of economic, foreign, or military policies abroad, particularly at this juncture.

Say what you will about how China got to where it is in such a relatively short period of time, given that it was largely an agriculture-based nation in the Flintstone era a generation ago. It is now a force to be reckoned with whose trajectory will propel it to even greater heights in this decade and those to come. If America and the leading nations of the world intend to become worthy competitors to China, they had better set aside their differences and combine their resources in research and development, AI, technology, and weaponry. That is the only hope they have of matching, much less surpassing, the long-term path China is on.