Again because I'm trying to avoid coronavirus data, today's thread trying to lend perspective and framing for the dynamics in China will be about the government response to people's response. People think of the Chinese government and Chinese like mindless drones who obey 1/n
This is why every opinion poll and think tankers who fly in once a year and professors who come every few years have very distorted views. The term I use is related to a building term of strong but fragile. The façade is very strong and as long as there are no or very small 2/n
number of problems the building materials hold. Any serious earthquake the building and materials simple cannot withstand the stress. System is very fragile. So this is why in normal times when people say things like people in China support the government it's like who cares 3/n
Evidence of this idea is pretty much everywhere. Best example are the wealthy who live in China and talk about how great China and the CCP are but hoard foreign passports, send their kids to foreign universities, and move their money out through sham deals. This type of 4/n
happens in a thousand different ways at all levels of society which basically tell you people don't believe aren't invested in the system. It's also why the CCP is absolutely lowering the hammer on everything coronavirus because they see a very similar fragility that if 5/n
People talk about their incompetence there will be very serious consequences for the CCP. It's why they try to blame the US for everything. I doubt coronavirus will be big enough to really drive major change to the system but you can definitely see the CCP is very worried 6/n
About the fragility of support. This fragility however continues to grow like rot. Wealthier a country grows the citizens continue to ask questions like why does my health care suck? Why can't I travel? Why can't I transfer money? Why does North Korea have better internet? 7/n
I always say forget the words look at the actions. It's fragile because when individual Chinese vote, they vote with their feet and with any sign of stress it isn't for the CCP. That's the definition of strong but fragile system. Done.
