Least of all Trump

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Not really the CCP is basically using a reformed Mandarin system. To rise within the ranks of the party they look at a combination of how well the thing you administered (e.g. a state factory) performed in comparison to whatever is comparable, as well as opinion polls of the local population, which aside from making sure that you won’t be hated (which could cause disquiet and if there’s one thing the CCP doesn’t want then that’s that) also doubles at sniffing out manipulated numbers, the people are generally quite good at spotting corrupt officials. If you rank well within your cohort you get promoted from administering a factory to administering local industry, then regional, etc, etc. What doesn’t happen any more is grading people based on how good their poetry is as well as cutting off their balls but the basic system is, broad strokes, similar to how Imperial China educated and selected its civil servants.

That doesn’t mean that there’s not corruption and grift going on, there’s still some degree of princeling privilege but it’s basically impossible to fail upwards in the CCP. Knowing people or being someone’s kid might open some doors, but it’s not going to guarantee you anything. It also means that the top ranks are full of for lack of better characterisation engineer bureaucrats.

Or, put differently: If the CCP was completely incapable they would’ve long lost power. Their whole legitimacy hinges on being perceived as good administrators, they know that, and they’re doing their darnedest to not lose it. Propaganda and secret police alone is not sufficient, history has shown that again and again, you actually need to be good at stuff that’s important to people or they cease to tolerate you.

The politbureau/party can still elect a new leader even if term limits are removed. There is democracy for “qualified voters” in China.

Not sure whether Xi keeping the job is faltering of the CCP’s ideal of collective leadership, or him being the guy the collective leadership wants as figurehead. They certainly don’t want a second Mao that’s for sure.

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They didn’t say the CCP are good, they said they are competent.

I don’t think anyone needs to read his book up know he’s a fuck up. China doesn’t care how much we try and upset their apple cart, they aren’t going to play Trump’s game.

You say “too” here, but it’s doubtful that Trump has actually read his book.

He famously had it ghost written, but fucked up the deal hard enough that his ghost writer got full writing credit on the cover.

Fart of the Seal.

Or just simple common sense.

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Putin has had trump’s number for years

Not really, he backed down on tariffs last week thanks to Canada and Japan. The truth is, Trump has put the US into a very, very precarious position. They have a lot of debt to refinance soon, and if the rest of the world wanted to, they could dramatically increase the interest rates paid on that by coordinating a sell-off of US debt.

I was one of them. They proved my fears unfounded (so far). They’ve also managed to convert me to a fanboy at some point. I realised I was playing a co-op game brought off steam, on my steam deck, via a steam link to the TV, and the wife using a steam controller.

It was unpopular cause it was kinda ass tbh.

I was gonna post that one but “What is this business strategy called” gets me every time

As much as I don’t like the Chinese government for all the censorship and etc, they do really know what they’re doing in terms of managing the economy and the infrastructure it relies on, as far as I can tell. Including their education system, it’s fairly shocking how many of the top engineering and CS colleges are in China.

Also, not being an insufferable douche-nozzle.

It turns out that maximizing for shareholder profit isn’t a sustainable way to run a business, and it actually burns your company to the ground after a few short years.