It occurs to me that China's authoritarianism probably has more domestic legitimacy than that of Russia or the USA since the country was lately very poor but now 'works' after the fashion of Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore, whereas in the contemporary USA, authoritarianism would probably mean doubling down on failure. The USA would be the weakest and most unstable link in the triad (which is otherwise strikingly reminiscent of Orwell's Eurasia, Eastasia and Oceania, by the way).