As it recovers from Covid more quickly than many other nations, China appears to be stronger than ever. But the world’s next superpower faces enormous challenges of its own. Minxin Pei, a professor at Claremont McKenna College and one of the world’s leading China experts, has spent years writing about them. Behind the country's façade of invincibility, he argues, lies “a Leninist state in an advanced stage of decay”.
In this week's conversation, Yascha Mounk and Minxin Pei trace the country's political evolution since the 1980s and debate whether Xi Jinping is cementing the party's power—or may unwittingly be seeding the roots of its own demise.
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Email: goodfightpod@gmail.com
Twitter: @Yascha_Mounk
Website: http://www.persuasion.community
Podcast production by John T. Williams and Rebecca Rashid
🎧 Xi's China
Very insightful discussion. Especially the idea of a future ‘prairie fire’ that an older Xi can’t control. Regarding State Capitalism, China is very hungry for more foreign capital, and is welcoming foreign stock and bond investors into its onshore markets. With asset managers like BlackRock free to manage money for Chinese nationals, this could eventually produce more dry kindling for a future fire. As for a coherent China strategy from the West, the USA really needs to get its own economic and political house in order first. Otherwise, it can’t offer a strong counterpoint to Xi’s China.