Sarah Paine

Mongolia, I haven't talked about it.

It was to the east in the Chinese territory.

And then they want to take some stepping stones for later expansion.

So that's what Kaliningrad is all about.

Another one is Moldova.

That is territory between Romania and Russia on very important river systems.

And Moldova's got problems with a place called Transnistria, which the Russians have poached.

So that story is still ongoing.

And also places like Azerbaijan, it's split between Iran and, well, now it's independent Azerbaijan, but it was split with the Soviet Union.

And then there are the divided states of Germany, Korea, Mongolia, and China.

and one is ethical rule well that's gone for the communist party let's try the next one economic prosperity whoops going fast that leaves the communists today with territorial expansion well that's ongoing with territory incursions into india south china sea island building and then all these gathering threats to taiwan and in part what's going on is the communist party wants everyone

He wants to play the nationalism card the same way Putin is.

If you haven't gotten anything else for you, play jingoistic nationalism because we human beings can be particularly attentive to that one.

And so that if you focus on that, maybe the Chinese people won't look at the ethical lapses of the Communist Party or the fact that their paychecks aren't going anywhere anymore.

So good old Xi, he doesn't have a marketable ideology anymore.

And what's really scary is Confucianism had just been this enduring feature of China.

Dynasties came and went, but Confucianism stayed.

until China was unable to fend off Japan in the first Sino-Japanese War that I told you about, and the Europeans in the Opium Wars, when all of a sudden Confucianism just seems totally inadequate.

And so when enough Chinese cease believing in Confucianism, that's when you get the 1911 revolution, and it just vanishes.

as an organizing principle for running your government.