Analysts long assumed a Middle Eastern blockade would cripple China due to its reliance on imported oil, but that assumption is dangerously out of date. Having spent years hoarding strategic energy reserves, increasing overland Russian imports and cultivating diplomatic leverage, Beijing has engineered a position of considerable strength, which it has been using to its advantage.
It’s too easy to subscribe to the idea the Middle Kingdom has all the aces in its sleeves, as it appears to have learned from the failures of its rivals, but I’m not deceived by all that glitters in Shanghai and Beijing. Notably the disturbing wealth disparity, an ironclad surveillance regime (which Thiel is envious of), and disillusionment and anger among some of the urban Chinese young against an exploitative work culture corroding them to the core.