Thanks to decades of rapid growth, China has the economic and military muscle to fundamentally challenge America and the international order. But the country isn’t doing as well as it might seem. For years, China has been experiencing, and concealing, a sharp economic slowdown. It confronts growing political pathologies, worsening resource shortfalls, and an epic demographic catastrophe. Not least, the CCP is losing access to the open, welcoming world that assisted its ascent. China rose so high and so fast from the 1970s onward because it enjoyed blessings unprecedented in the country’s
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