Originally Posted by UnderSpin

I agree with some of your statements, but I’ll give USA much less “credits” for that.

Materialism and consumerism are all human nature. We want those 'bounties' of life because we feel good having them. The party establishment will want to manipulate the system to get rich quickly, and get corrupted by power in the process. This is just human nature, with no need for USA’s help.

The idea that USA wants to control the mind, corrupt the youth and change the system sounds like a science fiction to me. The youth in USA may be more corrupted by materialism than in other countries. School age boys in USA spend so much time on video games that their minds are literally controlled by those stupid games. I certainly do not see USA wants their children to be addicted to these material possessions. And who is USA anyway? The politician, the business people, or the citizen? They are all occupied with their own interests, and their interests hardly align.

IMHO, the problem in China has much more to do with incompetent bureaucrats who mindlessly follow instructions from above, promote their self interests, don’t care, miscalculate, or are just stupid.