China and its resurgence, 天高皇帝遠*

China always had attempted to close itself from external forces, but would fail and thrive from past creative destructions, its dynastic changes. Although others tend to think of China as a powerful monolith, it is in reality a frail union of parts held together by a weak centripetal force that diminishes with distance from its center. Deng and his successors understood this and allowed the economic creative destruction to take place.

It never learned to manage the external forces without suffering violence and disruption -- until Deng. However, unlike the previous cycles of creative destruction, the post-industrial era disruption had lasted for more than a century. Now, that creative destruction pattern is once again apparent but in a fairly peaceful managed process. On the other hand, Japan, isolated physically, had not gone through much creative destruction but did manage the industrial creative destruction in an exemplary manner through the Meiji Restoration. It also benefited by its WWII defeat. Presumably, the Chinese leadership had benefited from the Japanese experience.

China should continue to keep in mind the limitations of its centripetal force if it were to continue its so far successfully creative destruction process.

* 天高皇帝遠 Heaven is high and the emperor is far away. Forces exerted by the center diminishes with distance.