Anecdotally I do feel like there is, to a degree, more of a pro-China undercurrent to mainstream-ish discourse than there was before. Outright celebration and respect of China and the accomplishments of their people is still rare, but I’m seeing a lot of “Well, at least they’re doing [insert X] better than us.” Even if they just have to add a “But authoritarian!” somewhere.

I think there’s both a push and pull effect, Trump is an obvious push factor, but there is also a rising disillusionment of western governments’ ability to deliver a better future for their people. The pull factors meanwhile are China’s visible achievements in building a prosperous society, and the rise in Chinese cultural exports like video games, movies, and technology.

The main challenge for us is to maintain this sentiment after the Democrats take over and the liberals all fall in line. I think that emphasising what China does well, not just what China does better than Trump, is a good start. We need to erode the omnipresent idea that only liberal electoral systems can produce good outcomes for their people, and China makes it pretty easy for us to point to as a counterexample.