‘Black Panther’ Review: The Movie’s Hero is Trump, the Villain is Black Lives Matter

Breitbart ^ | February 16, 2018 | John Nolte

[Cronos]

I think China fell behind the West NOT due to democracy or the Enlightenment

Rather China fell behind because:

1. For 300 years it was ruled by foreigners - the Manchu/Jurchens who crushed local Chinese and initially tried to stay apart from the ruled
   
2. They had a centralized state that frowned on businessmen or entrepreneurs (due to these possibly leading to local uprisings agaisnt the foreign Manchu overlords)
   
   
3. The Industrial revolution was stomped out due to the same reason

If china had retained its multiple warring kingdoms period along with the technology and openness of the Tang and early Ming dynasties, they would have gone very far.

[SunkenCiv]

China never remained divided into nation-states, and divided the Earth into familiar and foreign. There was a focus on ruling the familiar neighboring states (even the writing system is geared to making sure the same message can be read in multiple languages, a remarkable accomplishment) and minimizing contact with the outside world. And as you said, a centralized state -- that means, whatever puts the Emperor in a good light and keeps his ass fat and happy, is considered good. No upward mobility is permitted. Look at the pretty fireworks? Here's what they look like coming from the barrel of a cannon of a European man-o-war.

The British and Portuguese tried to crack into the Chinese market, but even then it wasn't a free trade zone. The British concern over the trade imbalance (mostly due to their newfound addiction to tea) led to the introduction of opium to the Chinese market, which in a very real way led to the shredding of the imperial polity. Moving tea production to British India disrupted the economy. Exposure to western political ideas ushered in the diasters of the 20th century.

[Cronos]

Though China wasn’t an export-dependent economy prior to the 21st century.

[SunkenCiv]

The Chinese have been a rat on a wheel, forced to keep their currency stable vs the US$, in order to maintain the trade surplus, and one way they've done that is to buy US gubmint debt. Better to have jobs here than to enable Congressional overspending -- but that ability to sustain budget deficits indefinitely is why there was no problem passing Most Favored Nation status even after the Tiananmen Square crackdown.

Okay, I just looked at the topic name... now I just have to go back to see how this wound up starting in here. :^)