It is impressive how one is able to follow the linear progression of the numerous small villages in the Yellow River basin to larger political units and ultimately to the emergence of the enormous PR of China today. On the Western side of the Euro-Asiatic landmass, the parallel processes of empire formation were interrupted and re-started several times and no such continuity is evident. May be I am wrong, since Greek is still spoken and Latin (what is French if not Latin?) is the main European language group. The pic shows a pottery mask from a Neolithic site on the Yishui River (Hebei) village (8000 years BP). I think those civilizations appeared 2 -3 thousand years later than our Middle East settlements.
The Xi regime in China is in transition. It is possible that I may visit the large plaza in front of the Forbidden City - without Mao's mausoleum in the middle. Mao was a disaster for China, his mummy has to go. Arthur Waldron says that China's state enterprises are losing money, and taxation is very weak, so foreign investments are financing the regime. Stop the investments and stop foreign trade - the regime is g.o.n.e.
Gorbachev did the right thing in peacefully dissolving the Soviet Union, says Waldron. Everybody knew that the system was dysfunctional but its collapse could have involved civil wars and according to Yakovlev, about 70 million dead. One may wonder how the Chinese regime will mutate into a democratic, elected government, one ruling with the consent of the governed. Six months of civil disorder in Hong Kong indicates that the Chinese people rejects dictatorship, however mild it is for the average Han citizen.
The Xi regime in China is in transition. It is possible that I may visit the large plaza in front of the Forbidden City - without Mao's mausoleum in the middle. Mao was a disaster for China, his mummy has to go. Arthur Waldron says that China's state enterprises are losing money, and taxation is very weak, so foreign investments are financing the regime. Stop the investments and stop foreign trade - the regime is g.o.n.e.
Gorbachev did the right thing in peacefully dissolving the Soviet Union, says Waldron. Everybody knew that the system was dysfunctional but its collapse could have involved civil wars and according to Yakovlev, about 70 million dead. One may wonder how the Chinese regime will mutate into a democratic, elected government, one ruling with the consent of the governed. Six months of civil disorder in Hong Kong indicates that the Chinese people rejects dictatorship, however mild it is for the average Han citizen.
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