China is a nation in which families, who are heavily dependent on younger generations to care for the older ones, have no offspring to spare. Losing one son in China now means the end of a family line — which matters in China.

This hasn't stopped China — yet — from becoming ever more aggressive. Yet. //

China can't overcome many of these issues. Not under the system they have in place. So much of China's vaunted economic and military might is based on deception and outright fakery, as YouTuber serpentza, who lived in China for 14 years, has endlessly documented. //

they may yet be able to wrest strategic control of the Pacific from the United States. If they do, however, it will not be the result of any economic or military might on the part of China. No, it will be due to apathy on the part of the West and the deterioration of the United States military.

China's demographic issues will remain, though, regardless of any success or failures in the military sphere. A generation — maybe two — may well see the end of China as a nation, perhaps even as a culture. The Middle Kingdom may return to what it was in the past: a group of satrapies and regional fiefdoms. That won't be good for the Chinese people or their neighbors; it won't be good for the global economy. But China's demographic crisis, started by their one-child plan, fueled by decades of totalitarian rule and economic fakery, may have made it inevitable. //

Estefan
an hour ago
Top-down decision-making, lack of basic freedoms, and corruption are also not fortifying China.