Change Management 1/3
China has changed dramatically in the last forty years. Business writer and thought leader Bob Yovovich tells us that China urbanized in half the time it took the US and with ten times the number of relocations. Such rapid change must have induced complex interlocking social shifts and costs - customs broken, institutions abandoned, social ties destroyed. Now, wither China? Wither CCP?
Prolegomenon for all of foreign affairs for the next decade or two
I get accused of writing excessively long posts. Mea culpa. This one is long, but not my writing. I include in full four articles, all coming to me within the last couple of days. Together, they lay out a Chinese plan for the decades, a Sino-Russian plan for the decades, point to the shallowness of American hegemony, and lessons to be learned for America and allies going forward. Yeah, I know, long and a little boring. Altogether, an interesting take on the future most of us will not see. You don’t have to read them all at one sitting. Enjoy.
You’d do it if you loved CCP ….
The demographic decline is way old news. Some of us were writing about it ten years ago. But the implications are still fuzzy to me. Spoiler – key to the future is consumer spending. Consumer spending depends on there being (1) enough people with (2) enough disposable income. Therein lies the complex Chinese tale.
More on Monkey See, Monkey Do
Two years ago I wrote a bit about the governor of Florida enlisting students to record and spy on college teachers to ascertain whether instructors were deviating from the permitted DeSantis script on American history and morals. DeSantis (and his GOP ilk) were clearly borrowing policy from CCP, which encourages students to report teachers to CCP discipline inspection organizations for punishment if they mentioned support for … well, anything of which CCP does not approve. Of course the boundaries of such limits are left vague, in accord with CCP practice – no way to tell when a red line is crossed, so self-censorship becomes the norm. See Monkey See, Monkey Do. I warned DeSantis against his choice of Chinese imports, but apparently my entreaty fell on deaf ears.
Could CCP Ban Hank Williams?
There is no civil society in mainland China, only the elite between the current emperor and the people. Now civil society - not to mention playful music - is quickly being banished from Hong Kong.
Move along. Nothing to see here. La la la
Every now and then some people in the US get excited and worried about Chinese gains in science, technology, engineering and STEM education - that China is beating the US in the critical tech race to the future. The comforting reaction is always on the order of, "Yes, but. We have freedom of thought and speech and eventually the authoritarian regime will self-destruct. And we will always lead in DEI technology."
