I left China in July 2015 and just returned from my first visit there after nearly a decade away. My impression is that the Chinese will do fine despite Trump’s idiotic “trade war.” The mood felt pretty bleak in China, but the Chinese still work like dogs. A popular term I often heard there was 卷 or “grind.” They are still grinding. They will always survive, no matter what.

The Chinese are digitally isolated behind the Great Firewall. You can’t access the global internet from there, which I find incredibly frustrating, and the man on the street usually has no idea what’s going on in the outside world, other than what he is told via official media.

The surveillance state has advanced so far in China that I am positive that there could never be a “street level” protest mounted again. Not that the people appear to have any desire to protest or overturn the government, but if they ever did, it would easily be nipped in the bud.

Another factor is that the Chinese people are completely dependent on their cellphones. You can’t even take a cab any more in China without having a cellphone. Every monetary transaction down to the tiniest purchases are done via cellphone. I assume every transaction is monitored in real-time. There can be no popular uprising in China given the combination of physical street-level surveillance (ubiquitous cameras with facial recognition technology) and real-time location monitoring of all financial transactions.

Electric cars are now ubiquitous in Beijing (there were next to none when I left in 2015). There are dozens of car brands that I don’t even recognize. I assume that Tesla’s global market share would quickly move toward zero if there were open competition. Fortunately for Musk, he is protected from real competition outside of China.

I enjoyed my visit. The Chinese people still have a good sense of humor and are friendly… of course it helps that I speak Chinese. The people remain hard working, smart, and practical. I couldn’t live there again because of the Great Firewall and the Surveillance State, but it’s a fun place to visit.