I recently enjoyed reading “Fatal Weakness”, a mid 2000s spy thriller by a (now incarcerated) ex-Ministry of State Security employee named Yang Hengjun. It’s about the career trajectories of a group of political science grads, many of whom are frustrated at being passed over for promotions in favor of engineering grads. I found this dynamic very funny.
The book is also very preoccupied with the “original sin”-like nature of obligatory corruption, where people brought up with Marxist-Leninist value systems are forced to operate in a quota based export / megaproject system. I’ve wondered if cognitive dissonance with the “grand technocratic opera” was key for Xi to leverage corruption crackdowns as a way to centralize power from 2008-2018.
Anyway, the villain of “Fatal Weakness” is a political science type who feels left out in the cold and wants to increase his own relevance by driving a wedge between China and the US through a manufactured crisis, one similar to a real-world crisis of the early 2000s where the technocratic state triumphed. No spoilers!
I saw the new note to give a rating if youre listening, whilst I am a avid reader of statecraft and not a listener I would like to give feedback anyways. I think this is a great letter. Always love to see it in my inbox. I think your cadence is great. Enough content to digest and think on but not overloading, but not so little that there isnt concurrence. 5/5. The diversity of guests is fun and I love when you have them on after the publish a book, leads me to new books and I really like that (such as this episode).
Overall great episode. Really enjoyed the insight into Chinese Culture. Keep up the great work!
I recently enjoyed reading “Fatal Weakness”, a mid 2000s spy thriller by a (now incarcerated) ex-Ministry of State Security employee named Yang Hengjun. It’s about the career trajectories of a group of political science grads, many of whom are frustrated at being passed over for promotions in favor of engineering grads. I found this dynamic very funny.
The book is also very preoccupied with the “original sin”-like nature of obligatory corruption, where people brought up with Marxist-Leninist value systems are forced to operate in a quota based export / megaproject system. I’ve wondered if cognitive dissonance with the “grand technocratic opera” was key for Xi to leverage corruption crackdowns as a way to centralize power from 2008-2018.
Anyway, the villain of “Fatal Weakness” is a political science type who feels left out in the cold and wants to increase his own relevance by driving a wedge between China and the US through a manufactured crisis, one similar to a real-world crisis of the early 2000s where the technocratic state triumphed. No spoilers!
I saw the new note to give a rating if youre listening, whilst I am a avid reader of statecraft and not a listener I would like to give feedback anyways. I think this is a great letter. Always love to see it in my inbox. I think your cadence is great. Enough content to digest and think on but not overloading, but not so little that there isnt concurrence. 5/5. The diversity of guests is fun and I love when you have them on after the publish a book, leads me to new books and I really like that (such as this episode).
Overall great episode. Really enjoyed the insight into Chinese Culture. Keep up the great work!
China is run by engineers and scientists
America is run by lawyers and businessmen