Did US turn against Google and Facebook? I think so. The trend is clear, the Internet giants are becoming so powerful that government feels threatened and cornered.
Ma on the other hand could well end up getting Epsteined.
These are not in the same ethical ballpark, and one doesn't have to be a US nationalist to recognize this.
If China was so great the Children of the US rich would go there to study. Instead they either stay in the US, or go to Europe/the Anglosphere if they want to be more cosmopolitan.
The reverse however is very true.
I'm sure it mainly came from rampant insider trading.
Regular corruption is fine in the West though, it's a victimless crime. For people who matter anyway, not the peasants who have to drink drilling oil fluid.
The point is that in the West there are clear and mostly unchanging rules that everyone knows.
In China not so much. Today you're the richest man in China, tomorrow you're an enemy of the people, next week you have tragically fallen to your death taking a selfie from a ladder. All while doing the same thing everyone else in your wealth bracket does.
One who think that secrets can coerce people, is treating the owners of the secrets as passive; which were never the behavior pattern of the powerful.
One who rises to the top, practices control and manipulate over others. Not the opposite.
That’s not an attack, I just don’t know what you mean by power.
Xi can simply dictate the results.
Xi also cannot dictate an election result. At least there was no precedence. As there is only one candidate for the highest position. Of course, US has 2 candidates, how much better/worse? I don't know, anyone can judge themselves.
As a matter of fact, no election can be held in China. Election was never a thing anyone can understand. Like when I was in elementary school, the classroom head was appointed. No important position was ever elected.
You might stand before Xi, and claim that Xi would be powerless if China is to hold an election. And himself and mostly everyone statistically picked on street, would look at you bewildered, probably laugh hard and walks away like anyone who encounter some lunatic. The analogy could be a Chinese run to US Senate speech, and claim that communism is better for US. The next day all the media would laugh so hard that I bet even divided as Trump's US, everyone would unit and celebrate this rare consensus that this Chinese guys is mad. Essentially, both concepts are virtually foreign to each other's mental system. They cannot process them.
What I want to say is that, China runs a system that is neither democracy nor dictatorship, in western sense.
A lot of people hate China, they often think that's because China is oppressive or authoritarian. While in fact, China is far more exotic than oppressive or authoritarian.
I often speculate that people hate China out of the deep fear of unknown. Not only unknown, China is strong enough that they basically position themselves to be unshakable in the current geopolitical system, unlike the old empire, which also claim superiority and reject inspection, but they were not really strong enough to resist.
I guess China learned the lesson since the opium war: it's important to be actually powerful than just claiming to have the mandate of the heaven.