Liberal democracies arose out of the realisation that autocracies have bad endings like this.
That's exactly what I'm saying: the West needs to face this unpleasant reality, rather than subsisting on myopic and irrational copes like this.
That the realities of governing systems are different to their public faces should be obvious to you if you want to participate at this level in the conversation. Also, I think you need to check your "political model" privilege there, anon. I think China is something new you don't know how to analyze or predict yet; the fact that you're leaning onto copes makes me doubly sure of that. Man....
I believe it's essential to acknowledge that the public perception of governing systems can differ significantly from their inner workings. If we are to engage in a meaningful discussion, recognizing these complexities is pretty important.
Finally, I'd urge you to reconsider your existing political frameworks when analyzing China. The nation presents a unique cast that may not fit into conventional molds, and I believe that relying on such older models could potentially lead to misunderstanding the situation at hand.
Pretending Xi is insane is twisting yourself in knots to avoid the unpleasant conclusion that China is a challenge to the West that won’t conveniently fail.
So often people are first to accuse others of what they are themselves…
For the sake of good analysis, it's important to focus on real alternatives to that hypothesis, and avoid getting bogged down in semantics.