[renegade-otter]

The fans of "illiberal democracies" should probably pay attention - and China is not anywhere near a democracy.

When your system relies on the whims of a single man, who sooner or later will become much smaller than his ego, bad things are going to happen.

Not going to psychologically profile Xi here, but he really reminds me of the Valley and crypto bros who walked into easy money during the past decade and are now convinced they are financial and leadership prodigies.

Also:

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/16/business/china-evergrande...

[coldtea]

Who said it relies "on the whims of a single man"?

Knowing the history of such governments, there would be all kinds of higher level competitors, party factions, bureucracy, lower-level party and local government interests (and thus resistance to things going against it), and so on. With enough of their support, anybody at the top can be toppled, or even arrested. It's a nation of 1.4 billion people, with complicated politics and a well entrenched party rule, it's not some solitary James Bond villain running the show. We just get the simplified cartoon version of it.

[tromp]

Xi used to face some opposition prior to the last party Congress but he managed to have much of them replaced by loyalists [1] [2]. So it's increasingly becoming a one man show.

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/22/world/asia/china-xi-jinpi...

[2] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/oct/23/xi-jinping-cho...

[renegade-otter]

There are obviously internal dynamics - Xi is not sitting there micromanaging every province with his morning coffee, and neither does Putin. They deputize, but unfortunately for them - personal loyalty becomes more of an asset than competence, and then it becomes a problem.

Anybody at the top can be toppled - if you understand the risks to you and your family when your, uh, eccentricities become known.