There are two things about what has happened in Hong Kong that need emphasizing. First, this was not a snap decision since last year. Maybe the timing was shifted slightly from the protests a year ago but everything we are witnessing has been nothing less than the 1/n

Manifestation of the governing ethos of China and the Xi administration. Some people who dealt with official China will date the shift in tone and practice as early as around 2010 but most date it around 2011 or 2012. The paranoia and arrogance was astounding even to those 2/n

Who lived in China a long time and had what they thought were long term relationships with official or quasi official China. I mention this because the arc of history we have seen from China in the past decade is not accidental or the result of some quick policy shift on 3/n

Hong Kong for instance but the entire ethos of the system. Second, that ethos is driven by one of the least understood issues of everything that Xi is terrified of becoming Gorbachev believing the fall of the USSR was driven because Gorbachev was too lax. I hear constantly 4/n

People say things like "explain to them what is in China's interest." Xi has already made that decision. You may not think that is in China's interest but that decision has already been made. The reason China is rapidly going backwards is because Xi believes 5/n

Liberalization caused the collapse of the USSR and he believes that is the greatest tragedy of the 20th century and he will do anything....and I do mean anything.....to prevent that from happening in China. Once you understand Xi's focus you both can easily understand 6/n

Why the CCP is behaving the way it behaves and its future objectives....looking right at you Taiwan. Anyone who says China would never do anything serious on Taiwan should be written off as completely entirely and willfully ignorant not worthy of any public discussion. 7/n

Lastly, what we are seeing is a complete failure of the so called Acela Corridor China experts and engagement strategy. Let's state it very clearly: your strategy has proven to be a complete failure. The fact you still believed in failed strategies and could not understand 8/n

what was happening in China speaks to your astounding lack of understanding about the country you claim to be an expert in and how to work with them.