Mindy > Recent Status Updates

* 2 ppl since CCP founding have “influenced” 5/6 successions: mao +
Deng. The sole one they didn’t was Xi
* tullock’s curse for autocracy successions
* most inventive period in Chinese history: Han-Sui interregnum (not tang + song). Inventiveness ⬇️ after 科举
* all but 1 successful Chinese tech company today have legal entities outside PRC

* 80s China was very different — more equal footing for politicians, open debates on TV in newspapers
* deng and his succession plan inadvertently set up Xi to centralize power 20 years later
* pre Sui: emperors and aristocrats were more equal, more violent depositions of premiers
* post Sui: emperors and aristocrats coexisted = stability
* emperors gamed keju to select for commoners at palace exams

* 科举 deprived china of its human capital and reinforced the autocracy
* M corps >> U corps. CCP is M corp and Soviet Union was U corp
* CCP has lasted so long bc it’s run as an organization not polity and there’s a degree of autonomy to its regional delegates
* literacy != technological breakthroughs. China always had higher literacy but limited impact bc the only use for literacy was Confucianism

Sunt lacrimae rerum