Every century or so the Chinese experience civil war, inter-state war, a state implosion, or the rupturing of their political-economy by social revolts. There is nothing to suggest that this trend is finished.

China, supposedly the heir to world hegemony, the unstoppable Communist Party-Capitalist machine and much beloved by CNBC, Thomas Friedman, the Washington Post and the 'Occupy' Losers, might just be heading into its own government-created real estate crash. No doubt the big brains in the media will blame the market. Real estate price distortions initiated and promoted by government rarely end well – see 1819 and 2008 in the USA.

China only has 800 million suffering poor, no water [see here], and regional and social tensions which make the US political-economy look like an age of Aquarius banjo jamboree. From Investors Business Daily:

“Indeed, China's economy may be on the cusp of a major growth reversal.

The cause: China's imploding real estate market. Since late summer, Chinese home prices have tumbled, partly a result of Chinese government policies intended to keep the economy from overheating.

Barclays Capital Research, the venerable British bank, predicts China's home prices will fall 10% to 30% next year, hitting the economy hard — and putting at risk the Chinese economy's 20-year string of 10% average GDP growth.

But that's only the beginning of the Big Cooldown.

Much of China's growth over the past three years has been fueled by a massive pile of debt. Chinese banks have lent an astounding $8 trillion since 2008 — an amount that dwarfs the Eurozone's $4 trillion in debt.

That debt binge is now abruptly ending as China begins to ratchet up interest rates and limit home-buying to keep prices in line. An epic bust is coming.”

$ 8 Trillion in debt much of it to infrastructure, real estate and land development ? History teaches that communalism in any guise will fail. Fascism or National Socialism, European Social Democratic Communalism, Russian Fascism, Chinese Kereitsu-styled Socialism, the Japanese 'MITI' model, the decrepit Chaebols of South Korea, and the Moslem Umma and the denial of the individual – are all based on the disavowal of the realities of economic and financial laws, and all lead to social implosions and usually conflict.

If China implodes it might well become externally aggressive. Desperate regimes plunder territory for both financial and political gain. One has to wonder that when China goes through a transformation engendered by debt, financial corruption, government meddling and exacerbated by a lack of water; what the media will say? Blame the markets? Blame 'conservatives'? Or just pretend that they knew it was going to happen all along......whilst still calling for a Mao-like figure to lead us out of our own malaise.