
Xi Jinping's Great Leap Backward - woodandsteel
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/xi-jinpings-great-leap-backward/
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beisner
Any given political systems works well in some cases, and poorly in others.
American representative democracy works when the country is relatively unified
on issues, but falls apart when the population is polarized (hence the lack of
meaningful legislation since the Clean Air Act under Nixon). Authoritarianism
works well when the ruling cohort is benevolent and technocratic, but falls
apart when corruption, incompetence, or political instability take hold
(various Chinese and Russian leaders fit the bill here).

All this is to say, things are complicated. The standard of living for
hundreds of millions of people in China has increased unimaginably since
Deng’s time: the middle class is still exploding, infrastructure is
immaculate, pollution is improving, and global opportunities for middle class
Chinese are opening dramatically. But at the same time, Xi’s tightening of
power, the burgeoning surveillance state, the brutality being perpetrated in
Xinjiang and Tibet, and the ongoing censorship are extremely troubling. Maybe
things will change, and the population will grow extremely discontent. Maybe
quality of life will continue to increase rapidly, China will become the
dominant global superpower, and people will laud Xi as a visionary for decades
to come. It’s just tough to say.

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woodandsteel
I assume we will be getting some what-abouters. So let me ask them what is
their own political philosophy, like do they think Xi is great, or do they
support liberal democracy but are angry at how the US fails to hold up its
ideals, or what?

Also, I assume we will be getting some people who will say the article is a
pack of lies, so let me ask them to give us what they think is the truth on
the matters the article covers, like the history of China, or how Xi has
changed things from the system that Deng installed.

~~~
dang
Please don't take HN threads into political and national flamewar. I'm sure
you didn't mean to, but that's where a comment like this one leads, which is a
reason for several of the site guidelines, including this one: " _Comments
should get more civil and substantive, not less, as a topic gets more
divisive._ "

Could you please (re-)read
[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)
and be more careful about using this site as intended?

~~~
fwefoijweo
If that's considered starting a flamewar, then this site is too sensitive to
hold political conversations in the first place.

