this post was submitted on 02 Mar 2025
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The damage caused by Donald Trump to the United States’ reputation is creating opportunities for China, particularly with regards to Taiwan, according to a retired senior colonel from China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA).

Speaking to the Guardian in Beijing, Zhou Bo said that Trump was damaging the US’s reputation “more than all of his predecessors combined”.

“By the end of his second term, I believe America’s global image will simply become more tarnished, its international standing will just go down further,” Zhou said. The people of Taiwan “know that America is going down”, which “might affect their mentality” with regards to China.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 3 weeks ago (21 children)

If you read the whole article, his actual statements sound pretty reasonable. Like he describes (to paraphrase) China and Russia as partners but not an alliance like two parallel lines that run next to each other but never overlap. And he doesn’t sound belligerent about Taiwan. More of a “As America collapses and China rises, maybe Taiwan will want to be a part of China proper as the most powerful nation.”

I don’t necessarily agree that China’s rise is inevitable and nor is America’s decline. (The last two days haven’t helped the latter but America has a short memory.) China’s economy, for all its strengths, can be sclerotic and legally uncertain. Trump is obviously a wildcard so the U.S. isn’t in a position to judge there. If I were rich, I wouldn’t know where to invest in either nation. Both countries, to me, need some significant reforms.

So, anyway, I’m not endorsing his newsletter or whatever but it doesn’t seem like he’s just spouting off jingoism.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (15 children)

China faces two issues nobody ever talks about.

  1. Xi Jinping is old so within years, he'll need a successor....and with authoritarian systems, succession can be bloody.
  2. China is facing a demographic collapse they have zero grip on at the moment. They might lose half their population by the end of the century. and their population hit peak in 2021, and just in the next decade they are projected to lose 50M people, (so this isn't hat far as many people think)
[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 weeks ago (12 children)

both of these issues are really reaching.

  1. CCP will have no trouble of succeeding Xi as it's a single party system.
  2. The population issue is heavily overblown and we have yet to see it actually have an effect. China being a dictatorship also can handle this issue more efficiently than the west.

The only problem China would be facing is civil disobedience but as long as Chinese live slightly more comfortable year after year and don't notice the spying/firewall too much the Chinese are just too spineless to do anything.

That's why China basically has to do nothing to win geopolitica these days. Just sit back, continue spreading propaganda and see everything fall in their favor.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

There might be one party looking from the outside, but on the inside there are many currents, and as soon as there's a power vacuum, those currents will infight to gain power.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 weeks ago

Yup. and the classic paradox of authoritarian systems is that if you name and train your successor, they'll sideline (I mean kill/imprison etc) you before your time is over, and if you make sure there's no clear successor, power vacuum is guaranteed.

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