从拍脑袋到找理由，中共摸石过河治国之道
China has declared its intention to fight the trade war to the bitter end. Many foreign analysts are trying to figure out what cards China holds and why it's doing this, as if China has genuinely prepared for it.
But the truth is, China always acts first and then scrambles to find a justification afterward. Why? Simple: because the top leader said so.
Take reform and opening up, for example. China started bringing in foreign capital first, then rallied a group of scholars to come up with a theory — "Socialism with Chinese characteristics." They claimed "capitalism also has planning, socialism also has markets," and thus doing capitalism in China was rebranded as socialism with Chinese characteristics.
Family planning? That began in 1980, but the Population and Family Planning Law wasn’t officially enacted until the early 2000s — after 20 years of experimenting on the population.
Zero-COVID? They jumped in headfirst, determined to be different from the West’s strategy of coexisting with the virus. Over a billion people got their throats swabbed for more than a year. When the wave finally came, they were caught off guard, with no ibuprofen or acetaminophen ready. Even crematoriums were overwhelmed. It turned into one of the biggest jokes of the 21st century.
Xiong'an New Area? Once the decision was made, they charged ahead, calling it a "millennium project." They poured in 600 to 700 billion yuan, and it’s still a ghost town. Sure, it’s a thousand-year plan, so taking it slow is understandable — but the shoddy buildings probably won’t even last 50 years.
And the trade war? Same story. No different.
Trump also acted impulsively — he was a political outsider who made decisions on a whim.
But Trump’s decisions were kept in check — by market forces, campaign donors, Congress, and the Supreme Court. When his wealthy backers started losing money in the stock market, that was unacceptable. So even if Trump made mistakes, he wouldn't go too far, nor for too long.
In the U.S., you won’t see something like the Cultural Revolution dragging on for ten years — no checks and balances, no room for dissent, and policies continuing until the leader dies, even if they wreck the entire nation. That kind of absurdity just doesn’t happen.