A sad ray of hope?
A look at Trump’s war on the United States should give the doomsayers pause. It takes time to destroy a system. US universities or cities, the rule of law, US dominance of the Internet, and even its alliances, won’t collapse overnight. Of course I hope the destruction will stop, but it’s also a matter of observation that turning us into an impoverished mid-tier Hungary would itself take decades.
Similarly, Xi’s wrongheaded repression won’t suddenly destroy the CCP. Engineering and science don’t really depend on politics, and China will keep doing what it does best, which is build stuff. The one-child and zero-Covid policies eventurally collapsed. Xi Jinping is not a nice man and his need for absolute control is stifling. China’s best hope is a heart attack and someone who realizes that China does best under a wily Daoist like Deng, not another emperor.
Though it will take a while to get there economically, secret police killing whoever they want is here right now.