When he’s not advising Trump to escalate in Iran–Trump has largely followed his suggestions, and look where it got us–Bret Stephens is assuring us that China is a paper tiger, because its government regulates too much and picks winners and losers. Chinese economic success simply can’t exist, according to Stephens’ CL ideology, so it doesn’t. Should we take him seriously?
Let me put it this way. If Stephens had been in Athens during the Peloponnesian War, he would have told the Athenians they had nothing to worry about, because their society was much less regulated than Sparta’s.