Erik Bethel

But there has never been any Chinese

In the 70s, Taiwan was China, and we did the switcheroo, and we gave PRC China the seat that Taiwan used to have in the United Nations.

But as Eric mentioned... Nixon did that.

Yeah.

It was in the 70s.

Every country has, with the exception of a handful, have switched diplomatic recognition.

from Taiwan to mainland China.

And this is a function of the fact that China's economy is so important that it uses it as a leverage point.

But where we are today is a full 180 from where Deng Xiaoping was.

And the 180 is the Chinese government has asserted control over every aspect of society.

So back when I lived in China, you know, the Communist Party really didn't factor into people's lives in any meaningful way compared to, say, Jack Ma or Tencent or Taobao or a zillion of these companies that were radically transforming the country.

And when Xi Jinping took over, he said, hey, wait a second.

We're an empire, just like the Qing dynasty and the Ming dynasty before that.

We are at risk of losing our empire to these oligarchs.

And something's got to change.

And he began reasserting control in the same way Mao did over every aspect of the economy.

And today you're basically dealing with a techno surveillance state where dissent isn't tolerated.

People have to read Xi Jinping thought.

And it's kind of strangely done a full circle.

Deng Xiaoping opened everything up and now he's closing things back.