Overreacher was not fiction

Writing a year or more ago when we floated the idea of the superiority of techno-autocracies over liberal democracies, it seemed that China was set to achieve its geopolitical goals of rivalling the US on the world stage. As an intelligently-led techno-autocracy it was on course to achieve such status and for the world to accommodate its continued rise, as had been the case since the country began opening up economically. Moreover, its peer states seemed encumbered with stupid populist governments and dysfunctional systems, that would never unite to rival China. Now, like Marlowe’s anti-heroes of Faustus and Tamburlaine, overreaching makes it likely that China is turning the tables on itself. China is no longer in a position of such strength but of increasing weakness. The responsibility for this lies with President Xi.

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