The Chinese purge no one is talking about...

via Washington Post...

After Xi Jinping took over as head of China’s Communist Party in December, some liberals dared to hope that change was in store for the world’s most populous nation.
Xi’s father, a veteran party leader, had a reputation for open-mindedness and moderation; Xi quickly embraced the idea of economic reform and even seemed to hint at some loosening of China’s one-party system.
Almost no one noticed when Xi reportedly told Russian President Vladimir Putin in March that their “personalities” were similar.
But now, six months later, Xi appears to be more of a Putin than a Mikhail Gorbachev, behaving like a leader more interested in consolidating his power and ensuring the survival of an authoritarian system than in adopting significant political reforms.
“The fundamental priority for him is to guarantee the ruling position of the party,” said historian Zhang Lifan. “From the bottom of his heart, Xi Jinping wants to be a strong man. But I am not optimistic. In my understanding, a strong man should be creative. I don’t see any new thoughts.”

Here.

It breaks my heart to say this, but many Americans/Europeans/Westerners are so damn greedy that they can't see the obvious.

The Communist party of China has been ignored and now we see the Party doing what the Party must to survive CAPITALISM!

What do I mean?  Simple.  The populace has seen a portion of their society (mostly connected party officials) get rich, start to flaunt their wealth and they still live in misery.

Quite honestly if Xi Jinping hadn't acted to curb some of the excess by his purging of the party, then we might have seen civil disturbances on a large scale.

Now?

He's consolidating power, putting those that don't end up in prison or killed on notice that debauchery will not be tolerated.

Expect the economic turmoil to last till at least the first of next year.  By then we'll see the purge completed, new constraints put on capitalism and a reinvigorated and probably more militant China.

Conflict between the US and China?  I move it up to 2020.