An End Game?

China watcher David Shambaugh has written an appraisal of the state of play in China, for The Wall Street Journal, available here without subscription. He writes many interesting things, the following struck me as most unusual.

Communist rule in China is unlikely to end quietly. A single event is unlikely to trigger a peaceful implosion of the regime. Its demise is likely to be protracted, messy and violent. I wouldn’t rule out the possibility that Mr. Xi will be deposed in a power struggle or coup d’état. With his aggressive anticorruption campaign—a focus of this week’s National People’s Congress—he is overplaying a weak hand and deeply aggravating key party, state, military and commercial constituencies.

China bears watching.