In short, it has become a country of the rich, the rich, and the rich, with no political responsibility for the climate damage it causes to the rest of the world. The resulting social divisions have led to the prevalence of "death of despair", a decline in life expectancy, and an increase in the incidence of depression. Politically, these derangements lead in different directions—most ominously, to Trump, who offers false populism and a cult of personality. Distracting the poor with xenophobia while serving the rich, waging culture warfare and posing as a strongman may be the oldest tactics in the demagoguery playbook of politicians, but they still work surprisingly well today.

The unrest has troubling international implications. How can it lead global reform when it cannot even govern its own country coherently? Perhaps the only thing that unites people these days is an overstretched sense of overseas threat. At a time of domestic chaos, anti-China rhetoric among party politicians has risen, as if a new cold war could somehow ease domestic anxiety. Alas, the party's belligerence will only lead to heightened global tensions and new dangers of conflict, rather than security or real solutions to any of the pressing global problems we face.