The story of twenty-first-century China “is not just one of demographic decline but also one of political paralysis—and what happens when those two intersect,” writes Carl Minzner in a new essay in the forthcoming issue of Foreign Affairs. “It is this combination that makes China’s future especially bleak.”
The country, he warns, is on track to end up with a “sclerotic political regime rendered increasingly brittle by worsening social, gender, and generational divides.” But observers in Washington should not gloat about their rival’s fate. “China’s trajectory is ultimately a warning: demographic decline and political erosion can hollow out any great power—including the United States.” |
