Thought so, thanks.
Knew about the Great Chinese Famine under Mao, and while I’m sure its true extent is something the CCP won’t disclose any time soon, I had my doubts that his successors pulled anything quite this bad from from the get-go.
Fortunately, Xi hasn’t reached that point yet, though given the recent protests and bank runs you’ve mentioned, I’d still strap in for both the incoming demographic collapse and all the structural rot they’ve accumulated to end in a collapse that actually does make even the most strident critics weep for the days of Chairman Mao. Releasing a Black Death-style pandemic or unleashing a Chinese Great Terror around 2053 or so tends to do that, I’d think.
They might make a move on Taiwan too its hard to say what the CCP will do during their decline.
The problem for china is there really is no way to expand to solve their problems, pretty much all of their boarders are natural land boarders, and outside that you have hostel island chains that can block them from the global oceans, and the CCP has pretty much pissed all of them off.
My money is that the CCP is doomed this century but that China as a country and concept will survive.