Item — HN Reader

> The final reason why China is winning is that the trade war has made Mr Xi and the Communist Party stronger, not weaker.

I am not so sure of this. The CCP just had to go through a massive purge [0] on the top, right before elections. This is not an indicator of "stronger" position of a despot.

[0] https://apnews.com/article/military-officials-expelled-china...

Overall, I prefer to read articles that are more factual versus this weasel-word salad.

3 comments

>> The final reason why China is winning is that the trade war has made Mr Xi and the Communist Party stronger, not weaker.

> I am not so sure of this. The CCP just had to go through a massive purge [0] on the top, right before elections. This is not an indicator of "stronger" position of a despot.

A despot that can pull of a purge is stronger than one who cannot, and purges might be necessary to keep people in line an maintain strength.

Purges are a product of strength.

It worked for Hitler.

It worked for Stalin too until Hitler attacked Russia and he didn't have generals who knew what they were doing.