1 like = One contrarian evaluation of the relative advantages of the United States and China.

1. The United States has a more centralized government than China.

A governor of a Chinese province or mayor of major city has more autonomy than the governor or even state legislature of a US state.

The Party is heavy-handed because it contests real local opponents.

2. The average Chinese citizen is more effectively skeptical of the Chinese government than the typical American citizen is of the US government.

They understand the distinction between official positions and real evaluations.

See online comment sections.

3. Chinese cinema and even science fiction, valorizes sacrifice in service of a utopian future, that is far away.

American cinema and science fiction, focuses on good vs. evil, where the world is unchanged after good wins.

4. The Chinese system has some of its architects still alive. The American system is not understood by anyone in its current elite.

5. The American governing class is hubristic domestically and paranoid internationally. The Chinese governing class is paranoid domestically and hubristic internationally

6. Chinese millennials are hopeful about the future, are free of debt and are the second generation to see living standards rise significantly.

7. Chinese government propaganda is clumsy and unappealing. The material produced by Chinese nationalists works better internationally, but is only tolerated not encouraged (Wolf Warrior).

8. American elites assumed the Chinese Communist party would be undone by financial opportunities offered by Hong Kong.

China ironically maintained party discipline and unity by turning a blind eye to approved enrichment for loyal party members.

9. Nearly all of US strategy has not focused on the Chinese population as a whole, rather on trying to build a counter-elite that could displace the communist party. This has failed since Chinese Liberals mostly interface with the West rather than each other.

10. If China can continue to work with Elon Musk to share his technology with them, China will out-innovate the US.

11. China has no viable way to train or select for successors to the current generation of statesmen. This is as competent as Chinese government will get in our lifetime. Expect a slow 50-70 year institutional decline, similar to the US trajectory.

12. China is likely to become home to many different urban subcultures. The US urban landscape is converging towards mono-culture.

13. The Chinese military is likely to have poor quality commanders, strange equipment failures and a general set of costly confusions and embarrassments in the first war it fights, the industrial base will buy them enough time to learn and eventually win.

14. America will fight more wars than China in the next 30 years. China will fight more wars than America in the 30 years after.

15. Chinese cities will suffer from similar urban blight to old industrial centers in Europe and America.

16. The Chinese Communist party will eventually have to de-industrialize the country to keep political control. At that point ideological coordination will crumble since the utopian project is over. The Party will remain but abandon Marxism, it will grow more cynical and corrupt.