I'm calling the modern history of the CCP "a ship on calm seas". It's easy to be popular when everyone is going from poor to rich. That will not continue forever.

There is something circular about this viewpoint.

Of course sharp/steady increases in wealth create a lot of stability, but taking that nearly unprecedented former success as the "given", makes the achievement of the latter misleadingly tautological.

Look at "Four Asian Tigers", people don't just constantly become rich for granted

The last decades have seen dependable gdp growth in China. These are the calm seas that matter in this context.

This growth has stopped recently...