Tensions from the build-up of military forces on the Ukraine-Russia border have made their yearly return at the beginning of 2022, although they have recently been overshadowed by events in Kazakhstan. Even until Kazakhstan supplanted the sabre-rattling on the news, there was little sign that anyone really believed something on the scale of war would happen. The people in Ukraine and Russia have grown weary of the political poker game being played with their futures. Now only the well-paid media shills speak seriously about war.

China is discovering that under capitalism, what goes up must come down. Extreme inequality is the defining feature of Chinese society, now officially more unequal than even the USA. As it stares into the abyss of capitalist crisis, the Chinese government is facing the same dilemmas as the USA over a decade ago.