For a long time now MB has argued that the future history of the Chinese Communist Party is very different to its recent past. As the Chinese economy stalls into its great debt funk, going ex-growth, we see the CCP facing increasing internal destabilisation as its post-Tiananmen social contract with Chinese peoples frays.
That was that the CCP would make the country rich in return for China giving up its freedom.
As the dreams of becoming rich fade, exacerbated now by the building trade war, the CCP will need a new social contract and the obvious candidate is jingoistic nationalism. To wit, from The Australian today:
