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Chinese Authoritarianism Stumbles on Covid; American Democracy Shakes It Off
WSJ ^ | 30-NOV-2022 | Greg Ip

Posted on 12/01/2022 1:01:23 PM PST by SpeedyInTexas

When Covid-19 first erupted in 2020, the U.S. struggled to balance the trade-off between lives and livelihoods. Infections and deaths soared while lockdowns devastated economic output and sparked demonstrations across the country.

China, by contrast, was a model of authoritarian efficiency. Mass testing, lockdowns and closed borders suppressed outbreaks. This allowed most Chinese to live normal lives without fear of infection, sustaining broad support for “zero Covid” (as best as outsiders could tell).

The ruling Chinese Communist Party held out these divergent responses as proof of its superior governance model. The U.S. had lost its historical “capacity for self-rectification,” one Chinese scholar concluded.

Nowadays, it is China whose economy is staggering under repeated, draconian lockdowns, while infections continue to spread. Public trust has eroded. Protests spread over the weekend, some challenging not just Covid restrictions but Communist Party rule—an almost unheard of, and risky, show of defiance.

(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: china; paywall; wsj
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RuZZia is a power in decline.

We have reached Peak China.

The 21st century will be: "Another American Century"

1 posted on 12/01/2022 1:01:23 PM PST by SpeedyInTexas
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To: SpeedyInTexas

Archived version: https://archive.ph/u7mC7


2 posted on 12/01/2022 1:01:34 PM PST by SpeedyInTexas (RuZZia is the enemy of all mankind)
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To: SpeedyInTexas
'Europe's a museum, Japan's a nursing home and China's a jail.'

Larry Summers

3 posted on 12/01/2022 1:05:13 PM PST by Theoria
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To: SpeedyInTexas

The Chinese followed the Democratic Party’s Covid policies and are paying the price.


4 posted on 12/01/2022 1:06:28 PM PST by Brilliant
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To: Theoria

“Japan births hit ‘critical’ new low – sapping national strength, experts caution”

https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/3201345/japan-births-hit-critical-new-low-sapping-national-strength-say-experts

China heading there too.


5 posted on 12/01/2022 1:07:02 PM PST by SpeedyInTexas (RuZZia is the enemy of all mankind)
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To: SpeedyInTexas
"The 21st Century will be another American Century" Doubtful, we are in serious decline due to immorality

6 posted on 12/01/2022 1:07:50 PM PST by realcleanguy (quickly things are falling apart, now that the )
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To: SpeedyInTexas

If we get rid of rinos and woke and deep state etc…


7 posted on 12/01/2022 1:08:23 PM PST by ifinnegan (Democrats kill babies and harvest their organs to sell)
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To: realcleanguy

Dems are sicko’s, remember Clinton’s Christmas tree decorated with condoms.


8 posted on 12/01/2022 1:10:22 PM PST by 1Old Pro
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To: SpeedyInTexas
Chinese Authoritarianism Stumbles on Covid; American Democracy FREE CONSTITUTIONAL REPUBLIC Shakes It Off
9 posted on 12/01/2022 1:15:08 PM PST by Jim W N (MAGA by restoring the Gospel of the Grace of Christ (Jude 3) and our Free Constitutional Republic!)
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To: realcleanguy

“nattering nabobs of negativism”


10 posted on 12/01/2022 1:15:14 PM PST by SpeedyInTexas (RuZZia is the enemy of all mankind)
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To: SpeedyInTexas

China had bad problems with spreading protests in the fall of 2019. They had started in Wuhan, and then spread to Hong Kong. It was threatening to jump the fence and spread all across China. Tiennamen Square solutions were no longer the option they were in 1989 when the world had zero financial trade sway over them.

They also had a bad problem with Trump and his tariffs and enforcement.

They released covid (An illegal Fauci, NIH gain of function project). That let them shut down the whole country and the protests. China and the demoncrat party, globalist republicans and their corporate sponsors saw it as a way to kill the Trump runaway freight train economy.

The covid scam served it’s purpose in America by overthrowing Trump and stealing the 2020 election.
So here radical enforcement is no longer needed. It’s only useful for money making here now.

China needs the scam a little longer because the initial purpose, protest suppression still looms.


11 posted on 12/01/2022 1:16:50 PM PST by DesertRhino (Dogs are called man's best friend. Moslems hate dogs. Add it up..)
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To: Brilliant

The Chinese followed the Democratic Party’s Covid policies and are paying the price.

Brilliant! So true!


12 posted on 12/01/2022 1:16:54 PM PST by tsowellfan
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To: Brilliant

“The Chinese followed the Democratic Party’s Covid policies and are paying the price.”

You have it ass backwards.


13 posted on 12/01/2022 1:17:47 PM PST by DesertRhino (Dogs are called man's best friend. Moslems hate dogs. Add it up..)
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To: SpeedyInTexas
We don't know "what" we have reached.

China and those parts of the world (including the U.S.) that are pushing Marxism are in uncharted territory. The Russia which was locked down by communists in the 20th century was different than the world of the 21st century. People aren't isolated the way they once were.

They know how people in free countries live and they might not be as easy to subdue as they once were.

We don't know...but I think we're about to find out.

14 posted on 12/01/2022 1:19:02 PM PST by RoosterRedux
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To: Jim W N

American FREE CONSTITUTIONAL REPUBLIC

My first thought seeing the headline: Who Canada?


15 posted on 12/01/2022 1:19:18 PM PST by tsowellfan
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To: SpeedyInTexas

Our Federal Government is more authoritarian than in WWII, and we don’t have elections any more that are not rigged - and the WSJ brays about “American democracy”. Pretty stupid.


16 posted on 12/01/2022 1:19:42 PM PST by Empire_of_Liberty
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To: SpeedyInTexas

China shot themselves in the gut. We shot ourselves in the leg.


17 posted on 12/01/2022 1:24:21 PM PST by gitmo (If your theology doesn't become your biography, what good is it?)
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To: SpeedyInTexas

But America no longer exists, friend. I’m not even sure you could call this a country anymore.


18 posted on 12/01/2022 1:25:01 PM PST by McCarthysGhost (q)
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To: Empire_of_Liberty

“Our Federal Government is more authoritarian than in WWII”

Is that really true?

“Military zones were created in California, Washington and Oregon—states with a large population of Japanese Americans. Then Roosevelt’s executive order forcibly removed Americans of Japanese ancestry from their homes. Executive Order 9066 affected the lives about 120,000 people—the majority of whom were American citizens.”


19 posted on 12/01/2022 1:25:23 PM PST by SpeedyInTexas (RuZZia is the enemy of all mankind)
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To: SpeedyInTexas
One of the biggest problems with totalitarianism is that if the leadership makes a bad decision, then everyone is tied to that bad decision, and there isn't any self-correcting mechanism. Even worse, because the leadership has to be seen as infallible -- or at least, much smarter than citizens would be if left to their own devices -- they often double-down on those bad decisions.

The more free a society, the more individuals can choose to opt out of bad decisions, and so show a different path to everyone else that actually works. And because there aren't "Great Leaders" invested on those decisions, it is much easier to admit to the course correction.

That's the same logic as federalism, and Governors like Noem and DeSantis pushing back on the federal recommendations are part of what gave us the final evidence as to what was necessary, and what wasn't.

20 posted on 12/01/2022 1:26:18 PM PST by Bruce Campbells Chin
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