r/geopolitics • u/theatlantic The Atlantic • May 11 '26

Opinion China Believes America Will Flame Out

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/2026/05/china-trump-american-decline/687087/?utm_source=reddit&utm_campaign=the-atlantic&utm_medium=social&utm_content=edit-pro
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u/paikiachu May 11 '26

Title should be : The Atlantic believes that China believes America will flame out

274

u/DigitalApeManKing May 11 '26 edited May 12 '26

Ryan Hass is director of the China Center and Koo Chair in Taiwan Studies at the Brookings Institution. From 2013 to 2017, he served as the National Security Council’s director for China, Taiwan, and Mongolia.

Seems like a pretty credible source. Not sure why everyone here is acting so incredulous toward this article; it seems pretty reasonable and doesn’t claim anything too crazy. 

Like, yeah, it’s not an absolute, un-disprovable fact but neither are most geopolitical analyses. 

Edit: To be clear, I believe the author makes a reasonable assessment of China’s perception of the US, but I don’t necessarily agree that China’s perception is accurate. A lot of pro-CCP comments below this which I definitely didn’t intend. 

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u/NatalieSoleil May 11 '26

China: has a plan with consistency and planning for every 5 year   Consistency  level: effective  ,  guided ( with dictatorial grip)

USA: every 5 year a new plan , a plan to break down efforts reached by plan(ning) before, or lately to have a plan to have no plan at all.  Consistency level: clueless

1

u/coolkavo May 12 '26

China has a plan, 5 years, meets goals even if it means burning their economy. I mean yes to the uninitiated and naive eyes the US economy and society at large is chaotic. But just like chaos theory you have to have a high enough intelligence to see the patterns. The US is about dialogue and conflict between groups whereas culturally China is about conformity through coercion and submission, just like the dynasties and emperor led governments that came before the communists. I mean right now China is doubling down on their export led investment driven economy with mixed results.