The invaluable Reading the China Dream (David Ownby) has just translated two fascinating items from CICIR head Yuan Peng—his much-discussed essay on post-COVID changes in the global order & a vivid interview on "American chaos":

https://www.readingthechinadream.com/yuan-peng-coronavirus-pandemic.html
https://www.readingthechinadream.com/yuan-peng-political-gamesmanship-and-american-chaos.html

Yuan Peng is a keen & influential Chinese analyst of the U.S.:

"Over the past twenty years, and especially in the last five years, America has changed to the extent that not only do foreigners no longer recognize it, but even Americans themselves no longer know it..."

He highlights "deep structural problems have emerged in American society" with "five social contradictions": racial, class, generational, regional, & gender.

They are interlinked, he says. They "manifest in the unhealthy competition btwn the 2 parties" & political polarization.

He concludes the interview by saying:

"On the surface, America appears to have a prosperous economy, a thriving stock market, and a falling unemployment rate. But this is not the result of structural reform, and is instead propped up by the old capital of American hegemony..."

"For the US to achieve a real transformation, it must also experience a certain period of hardship in order to address, internally, the deep polarization... &, externally, the processes of globalization and informatization, instead of running away"
https://www.readingthechinadream.com/yuan-peng-political-gamesmanship-and-american-chaos.html