China was discussed on this board for quite some time. Current development was predicted by some freeper years ago.
The Chinese pretty much has ways to get out of this trade war mostly unhurt and stronger. But it is up to them to take ways or not.
I think culture is stronger than religion or politics and slower to change, particular when things do appear to change while only changing on the surface.
Both China and Russia to me continue to reflect the political culture bequeathed from their imperial eras - only the names the players call themselves changed. The Russians went from the imperial Czars to the Soviet Czars to Putin’s mobocracy - its all the same deep down. The Chinese went from their emperors to Mao as emperor, to Deng as his regent successor to the imperial committee of the politburo - without blinking an eye or losing a step. The power center held and it was accepted by the masses. Same system under a different name.
The politburo has staying power because they did not junk the imperial Chinese culture - they hijacked it for themselves, strapped it to their agenda and occupy its power. The people of China had known no other culture of power for many centuries. They live accepting it as the Chinese way.
Playing the “nationalism” card is just one of the ways the politburo invokes the ancient Chinese culture among the people.
Like recently with Hong Kong, most mainlanders do not understand what’s wrong in Hong Kong and what the protestors argument is about - of course Beijing is in charge and it must be.
On the other side, the brief period of British colonial rule started the change in the culture of the Chinese in Hong Kong. They got a real taste for western political norms and unlike the Communists have been trying to make a true revolutionary change in some Chinese people’s thinking.
The vast majority of the masses of the mainland can’t see it because they themselves have never had a taste of the political environment that the folks in Hong Kong had.
Resting that imperial Chinese consciousness - the imperial power center of the politburo is normal and O.K. - away from the mainlanders is not in the cards in our lifetimes, in my opinion.