In Reply to: In principle, yes, it's hard to imagine one super power deciding posted by blindness on August 29, 2026 at 13:06:35
is that the Chinese are playing long game. tRump and pootin aren't.
I really think tRump has a strong desire to keep power in the family and will try and hand the cult to Don Jr. That's not American long game though, that's TRUMP long game. He doesn't give a sh!t what the world is like after he's burning in Hell.
I think it's the same for pootin, but who can say what his legacy planning is. Does he even have evil spawn like tRump? I don't know.
China though....it's a cliche that they're planning for the next hundred years and I believe it. If AI doesn't kill everyone in a few years this world will be "China and everyone else" in a couple of decades. It's been awhile since I've studied Chinese history closely but I think this is the historical pattern. They become dominant in many ways and then, every 400 years or so, they go a little nutty or internal strife wins out and the whole thing kind of collapses.
Like Mark Twain said (right?), "history doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme."