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!