That is why China’s leader Xi Jinping’s obsession with absorbing or even conquering Taiwan might indicate that not only the United States and Russia, but China, too, face over the long term what I call Shakespearean decline. I refer to the inner demons that drive all powerful leaders to a certain degree of madness, best exemplified in some of the plays of Shakespeare. It is uncanny, as if all three great powers have produced leaders with a death wish, each driven by private torments. And the more concentrated and unchallenged their individual power, the greater their proclivity to do real
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