[augment001]

> Anyone saying "China also wants an empire" or "Empire is inevitable" is categorically wrong, though, or at the very least has not at all engaged with the essay above.

This is frankly, silly. The essay is just doublespeak.

If you can’t articulate clearly why it’s not in China’s interest to extend its influence throughout the world, it’s because you don’t have a coherent position.

For what it’s worth, I think most of the criticisms of the American system are valid, and the extent to which we are aware of them is because it’s founded on being open to criticism.

We’re faced with humanity being deeply flawed and not having developed a utopian system of government anywhere, ever.

A central question we are facing is - do we want a world in which governments can be criticized, or one in which such criticism is brutally repressed?