There is no such thing as a limited war between US and China just like there is no such thing as limited war between US and Soviet Union. Soviets couldn't even break the blockade of Cuba without total nuclear war and in 1962, the Soviets had only 12-24 ICBMs, much fewer than China publically does today.
I'm very happy that at least somebody here from Chinese posters shares this view, and takes this seriously. A confrontation with USA would a be completely no laughing matter for anybody living in an any much significant city in China, let alone first tier one.
I am genuinely scared of soon coming to power pinks, and current sixties generation leaders talking of this possibility so casually;
— "Ah, we will trade few islands, possibly few coastal cities, but we will have Americans off our neck at least for a decade!", — As if they think that foreign military with a no joke general staff will let them troll them somewhere in the middle of nowhere in the Pacific Ocean, with no consequences to them.
See, the matter is no longer about whether US being able, or unable to contain China's rise, it is about them
not having options against us in a confrontation other than calling Ohios right away.
US does not have the ability to force Chinese internal issues. They know that if it came down to competing on internal stability, they cannot predict who would win. Why would they get aggressive if they'd naturally win anyways based on internal development? It's much lower cost and much easier for them. But they can't be sure, since if they're wrong they'd lose hegemony forever. Instead from CoVID-19 and #blacklivesmatter you see that THEIR internal issues have been forced. THEY are the ones who have to worry about internal issues and they are not performing well, which is why they're lashing out.
You need to separate the meat from the bone here. There are multiple games being played here simultaneously.
First: US does not have the ability to force Chinese internal issues.
Yes, they can, but not to any extend to make the party as a whole worry. What they can do, however, would add a lot of problems to XJP personally.
The single whiff of US closing off visas to party members simply exploded wechat groups popular with Guangzhou party insiders. The diaspora groups in Vancouver which are full of kids of party members is still keeping a brouhaha going for the second day in a row. And this is after 5 something edicts against naked officials...
US can't do much to genuinely endanger the party as such. CPC can easily purge a double digit of officials to shut up these people... but again, at the cost of increasing the chance of troubles few years down the road, and a possibility of Romanian scenario happening. I am not talking about regular people, whom CPC can gulag way more casually than own party members.
Here, they are effectively saying XJP's head is a price for resumption of US-China trade, political engagement, and them tolerating little misdeeds of individual party members on their soil: "Want trade, G8 seat, and your house in California? Then, throw somebody under the bus."
Second: They know that if it came down to competing on internal stability, they cannot predict who would win.
There is no way CPC cadres can do anything to give Americans a real trouble like an insurrection.
Try reciting Marxist mantras on the Times Square, and see how much of revolutionary following you will get. China can not really hurt America on this front, America too can not hurt the CPC more than adding a few more troubles to ones the party is dealing with already.
Third: Why would they get aggressive if they'd naturally win anyways based on internal development?; Instead from CoVID-19 and #blacklivesmatter you see that THEIR internal issues have been forced.
USA has a thing called elections... See, it was a big moment for brouhaha when cadres got news of Xi having under the table talks with Trump at the time when CCTV, and party's internal medias were blasting Americans 24*7. But it also shows that Americans are doing that too. Attacking China is a pinata for political capital, but Trump also sees Xi as his ATM, and thus he too went for the "under the table talks," at the time his cabinet was blasting Xi.
It is also a perfect way for Trump to distract Americans from internal troubles.
XJP does want to be seen as "tough on Americans," but doesn't really want all the flak coming back to him from that. So apparently, he, and Trump made a gentleman agreement to continue with this all bark no bite conflict.
A good question to ask now is how long both the GOP bureaucrats, and the CPC will let their leaders to continue this pretense fight?
CPC is actually reducing recruitment.
And that's exactly because Xi issued an edict to do something with randomness of recruitment, as he very likely felt that it adds to the problem of party being unruly as it is.
Based on the evidence, CPC is not the one that has the existential crisis. If they were, they'd be lashing out and making gambles.
Have you been reading news for the last few years?
Well, I admit, existential crisis is a bit too strong of a phrase here. Better to say, what troubles Xi's generation is a chronic insecurity in that regards. They were culturally revolutionised in the head, and on top of that they lived through the collapse of the original Eastern bloc. Xi's closest people went to the West, or went on pursing business career, turning their back on the party. You can say a massive insecurity complex is the least what one can get after living through that.
If you had taken a look on just any internal newsletter that people on level of municipal committees of big cities, and above get, it was Xi's near exclusive preoccupation at around 2015-2018. He sounded like as if we had a bourgeois hiding behind every corner, ready to launch "creeping bourgeois infiltration" on him.
It was at that time when quite high up people apparently started asking questions if he is really starting to go mental.
They aren't. Every single move has instead been highly limited and reactive towards massive provocation.
Well, China has a ministry of foreign affairs, a pretty ordinary diplomatic organ, whose mission is to do things conservatively, and not making troubles for the higher ups. We also have the CPC's internal diplomatic organs, and its inner demons throwing idiosyncratic demarches every few years, which the state council level people have to sort out after.
The split-brain nature of China's diplomatic engagement is all due to that.
I don't think Paul knows how CPC works. Many people don't either. He feels fighting poverty and making people's lives better is a bad thing. That is what a relevant government is supposed to do. Make people's lives better, provide security and lift poverty. This is real democracy, not persuing idiotic personal freedom.
I don't have any problem with that. And I am not giving a single-handedly bad evaluation for him, and his faction.
All past general secretaries had some genuine merit to their line. Even Jiang, whom I once though of as a rare idiot, now look to me less single-sidedly bad these days, and even having a point some times.