Over the years, China has been called Red China or Communist China. These appended descriptors no longer describe today’s China.
The Chinese Communist Party hasn’t changed its name. Its constitution still declares communism as the ultimate goal. The party, however, has long ago diverted from orthodox Marxism, which in practical terms means the abolition of private property. The CCP now not only allows but encourages diverse ownership in China’s economy. For this compromised and mixed economy, the party calls it “socialism with Chinese characteristics.”
With its unorthodox or creative reforms, the CCP was able to lift 800 million Chinese out of poverty and expand the country’s urban population from19 percent to 67 percent in four decades. It oversees a vast market economy, in which private companies contributed 60 percent of China’s GDP, 70 percent of its technological innovation, 80 percent of its urban jobs, and 90 percent of its total number of business enterprises as of 2025. It has also turned China into a manufacturing powerhouse, a global trade superpower, and a leader in green energy, EVs, humanoid robots, and other high technologies.
Still, as the one party in one-party rule, and with its old habit of censorship and control even over advanced technology, CCP rule is still authoritarianism. It is just not your run-of-the-mill Communist authoritarianism anymore.
Jennifer Lind, an associate professor of the Department of Government at Dartmouth College, calls China’s version “smart authoritarianism.” In an interview about her book Autocracy 2.0: How China’s Rise Reinvented Tyranny, Prof. Lind is quoted as saying, “The question is no longer ‘Can China rise to become a great power?’ but, rather, ‘How did China do it?”’
According to Prof. Lind, the conventional wisdom about developmental authoritarians was that they had two choices: either loosen control to allow more innovation or keep tight control to accept less innovation. China defied that. That wisdom in the U.S. academic and policy community, Lind pointed out, has gotten China wrong at almost every turn. Calling the China model “smart authoritarianism,” she tried to distinguish Chinese government’s ability to encourage innovation while still maintaining significant political control, to move the country not only from poverty to middle income but to go further and cultivate innovation to sustain economic growth, and to adapt to new conditions in the world.
An autocracy evolving into smart authoritarianism is one version, Prof. Lind says. But she notes the possibility of arriving at it from a surprising, different direction: democracy. what does that teach us about our own authoritarian president and Trumpian authoritarianism. Is it “smart autocracy?”
While accepting his Republican Party nomination in 2016, Trump stepped onto the stage of America’s democracy with perhaps the most blatant authoritarian declaration in these United States: “I alone can fix it!” So, what problems has he fixed alone, domestic or international?
The Ukraine war: According to CNN, Trump has said 53 times that he would end the war in Ukraine either within 24 hours of his return to the White House or even sooner than that. Now a year and a half into his second term, the war in Ukraine is still raging, longer now than World War I. Trump’s bromance with Vladimir Putin has resulted in as much success as his love affair with Kim Jong Un.
Tariffs on China: With his Liberation Day reciprocal tariffs on all countries in early 2025, Trump punished China with an eyewatering rate of 145 percent. First, the Supreme Court ruled his tariffs illegal. The U.S. deficit with China did shrink for a while, but the “reduced” deficit, however, simply shifted to Vietnam, Taiwan, Thailand, and India. Now, China’s exports to the U.S. are surging again at pre-“Liberation Day” pace, soaring nearly 35.4 percent in May from a year earlier. Finally, when China retaliated against those tariffs with its powerful choke-hold restrictions on essential rare earth metals, Trump backed down.
Inflation: Trump promised voters that he would end inflation on Day One and slash grocery prices. But he undid his own efforts by launching his Liberation Day tariffs worldwide, making everything more expensive, from groceries to household goods to electronics. Then came his unprovoked war on Iran, which sparked an international crisis, pushing gas prices up in the US to $4.086 on average, and $5.529 for Washingtonians. Gas in downtown Los Angeles this past weekend was going for $8.50 and more
Iran war: Trump won over many Americans with his pledge of no new wars or regime change in foreign countries. But he started a new war in Iran, aiming for regime change. But just as he had not expected China to retaliate against his tariffs with, Trump the “stable genius” never expected Iran to close the Strait of Hormuz. His criticisms of America’s earlier wars as stupid and a ridiculous waste of blood and treasure can now fully apply to himself.
If Trump must be an authoritarian, would it be better at least to be a smart one? Doubtful we’ll find out.
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