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[I always thought that Mao was a radical break with the past. Then I started reading a lot of Chinese history. Some emperors were nice guys, some were monsters but all controlled their societies minutely beheading mandarins, generals and common people for minute infractions or because they were believed about to commit infractions.]

Richard Pipes once pointed out that the problem with the Soviet Union wasn’t that they were Communists, but that they were Russian. The issue with being Russian wasn’t the bullshit Democratic issue of “election meddling”, but a world-conquering mindset - a thirst to add provinces/oblasts until the world stands united under Russian rule. The same issue applies to the Chinese, whether they were ruled by emperors, Nationalists or Communists.

I used to think of Chinese Communism as a bane to the world. Now I think of it as an excellent obstacle to Chinese ambitions. The Communists have found a way to perpetuate the reigns of the emperors under their own banner. Fortunately for the rest of the world, that style of governance incorporates the very weaknesses that allowed nations from the other side of the world, whose forebears were savages when the Chinese were civilized, to kick the Chinese sovereign’s teeth in. So long as China is ruled by emperors like Xi Jinping, it will never rule the world. And not for lack of trying.