Will China have a Syria moment? | The Manila Times

First word
INSTEAD of worrying about what new abomination China will commit against our coast guard and fishermen in the West Philippine Sea, I urge our countrymen to spend some time instead surfing the internet for news and developments in China. If you do his, you will experience a feeling of schadenfreude (delight over the misfortune of others) because you will learn that the Chinese people today, especially the younger generations, including President Xi Jinping and the all-powerful Chinese Communist Party (CCP), are wracked with worry over threats to China's economy and its brand of totalitarianism, and over the widespread protests across China that could replicate the dissolution of communism in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union in 1989 and 1991.

With such existential matters to worry about, why would they devote time to poaching in our exclusive economic zone?
In this final week of 2024, things are moving so convulsively that we may be looking at a different China by the time of the Chinese New Year, the year of the snake, on Jan. 29.
You get a sense of how the wind is blowing from the headlines of so many podcasts and reports on China's situation on YouTube:
"Does Xi Jinping fear a Syrian moment?" (Lei's Real Talk, Dec. 24, 2024); "Mutiny in China: A country on the edge of collapse" (Business Basics, Dec. 29, 2024); "China point of no return"; "China sinking into unprecedented corruption; Xi has $6 billion stashed away" (ChinaUnscripted).
I discuss here some details from the first two podcasts.