The more ominous danger, Adam said, came from China. “Putin’s Russia is the threat of a wounded animal. China is the threat of a growing, strengthening, burgeoning power.” It was a power that had the capacity to do more than tear things down—the stopgap nationalism of a Putin or Orban. Russia could destroy; China could build. So perhaps, after Putin tore down pieces of the post–Cold War Western world, it was China that would replace the old order, with consequences for our politics, culture, and identity for a century to come—in large part because of technology.
