This is why China is not a threat:
The Fordist economy is long dead. The economy of quirky, deep, multilayered, original personalities has triumphed. Mass produced plastic crap is out of fashion as a human resource. Artisanal work is in vogue.
Don’t tell me I’m wrong because if you are reading this, you are so different from those drummers, you might just as well be from a different species.
China is also facing major internal issues that as far as I am aware are not actually being reported in America.
They are facing similar issues in terms of population replacement, though in their case its arrived at via a slightly different issue. Oh they are having just as bad internal economic issues as we are, but its been compounded by women traditionally receiving a bride price. Which in a normal time is fine, but its not normal times, and the women in China have been infected with the virus of feminism as well. So they are demanded massive bride prices to the tune of hundreds of thousands of US dollars. Not for a model or for a barely legal girl. No for a 35 year old with average looks.
Further more job-wise I don’t know how badly things are going now, but at the start of 2025 the countryside was emptying into the cities because there was no work, or the work there was couldn’t pay a livable wage. But the cities don’t have enough jobs either, so China has entire streets where young under 30 folks are basically camped out living as a homeless population.
It gets worse. Economic wise they have been propping up their economy by building ghost cities which are effectively cities no one lives in that are being built to pretend like things are going well.
I suspect China will take one of three paths. Path 1 they will simply fall apart due to demographic collapse (both current issues, and fallout from the one child policies that ended about a decade or so ago.)
Path 2 the Chinese people might try to overthrow and reform the government. This one is possible, but much less likely. The CCP is still quite strong even as the country is barely hanging on, and has no issues with arresting or executing people who oppose them.
Path 3 is the most likely going by what countries in this position typically do in history. This is a path to a small limited war. Basically you find someone you can win against even in the condition your country is in, you spark tensions, then hostilities, then war.
The war if done properly tends to motivate your people, potentially giving new life to dying industries, new jobs, etc.
The real issue is we have no way of telling how things will pan out. Mainly because Asian countries act different to European countries. Different peoples and cultures after all. What makes sense to us is not necessarily what they prioritize.
Still the leader of China seems to have a great well of patience to draw from, so personally I think he is planning on letting things globally continue to deteriorate until the West can no longer even attempt to stop actions overseas, then make his move whatever said move will be.
Sorry, what even is the argument here? China can mobilize 2000 men to drum in synchrony for a globally televised sporting event, therefore they’re stuck in the industrial age?
LikeLike
There is a sensibility that says, “oh, what a beautiful way to represent our country.” And there is a sensibility that is instantly and viscerally repelled by this spectacle. My point is that, in neoliberalism, the former subjectivity is not going to be successful.
LikeLike
I don’t agree with this dichotomy. International sports events are known for large, expensive, and often bizarre spectacles in the opening ceremonies. China’s stadium-sized drum-fest, France’s drag-queen last-supper, even whatever they do at the Superbowl each year, those are all similar and very modern phenomena – stage-managed national-identity media-theater for audiences of millions. There is no inherent reason why a westerner should be repelled by a few minutes of synchronized Chinese drumming, it’s a culture gap with no more significance than soccer versus gridiron. It’s just a spectacle. As a non-Chinese you might be missing lots of the meaning, but that’s the kind of experience that globalization delivers.
LikeLike
At least the US managed to avoid this kind of synchronized spectacle at Trump’s Army parade.
LikeLike
An army parade and a civilian festivity are two completely different activities.
LikeLike
Communist countries are notorious for their military parades. A more civilian approach is a step in the right direction, even if it appears somewhat militaristic.
LikeLike
Did you personally find the video attractive? Would you watch beyond the first 3 seconds?
I felt a sort of a bored disgust and it’s interesting to me that some people see the drumming as impressive. Maybe if I were still a drinking person I’d find it funny after a few cocktails.
LikeLike
China has the advantage of being much bigger than Germany, which allows them to dominate in manufacturing in a way Germany could never dream of. The mistake people make is thinking that this is due to to cheap labor, when it really their huge consumer market which allows them to invest massively in automation.
LikeLike
I don’t know why anybody would want to waste money on automation with such crowds of eager slaves.
LikeLike
Because the slaves are demanding higher wages.
LikeLike
One can argue that the old-time economy of farming/mining/manufacturing is obsolete. But people still need these these things, so I wouldn’t write them off just yet.
LikeLike
“China has the advantage of being”
Whatever advantages it has, it has the bigger disadvantage of being a communist dictatorship and dictatorships can maintain rapid economic growth for a time but then run up against the dictator barrier and have to either open up or hunker down.
China has hunkered down and their economy is on the edge of a precipice. One reason is that rising income had no outlet in investment apart from real-estate (apartments in high rises) and so the market became glutted (by one estimate there was twice the housing that they needed).
There are other problems that a dictatorship simply can’t deal with.
russia itself came up against the dictator barrier around 2011 or so IIRC and to hunker down they ended up invading Ukraine in 2014.
Dictators or economic progress…. sooner or later a country has to choose.
LikeLike
I agree 100%. I’m just saying we should pay attention and not just write them off as hopeless due to “cultural reasons.”
LikeLike
I think the big government bureaucratic model can take you quite far, see France.
SA has a more lawyer-centric model. Even “traditional” big men fight their battles with lawyers.
https://www.citizen.co.za/news/ramaphosa-responds-to-zumas-letter-of-demands/
Privatization in this context means that the state accepts its role as regulator and that the private sector provides the capital and expertise for new developments.
LikeLike
A conservative literary critic and college professor
Clarissa's Blog 
Leave a comment