The "anonymous" piece in Politico is seriously misguided. I write as a scholar who studied and wrote about Soviet and post-Soviet politics for decades. Kennan's prescience lay in recognizing the structural weaknesses embedded in the Soviet system, the dogmatic ideology, overcentralization, and so on. He was right that a long-term, steady policy of containment would ultimately allow the regime to succumb to its own inherent flaws. It would be a serious mistake for the US to think it can exploit factional disagreements in the Chinese leadership. Xi's strategy of tighter political and ideological control by the CCP, unlimited tenure in power for himself, and more statism in economic management is likely to generate negative feedback effects for the regime. For me the relevant comparison is the Brezhnev era: "stability" at the cost of long-term decay and ultimate collapse of party rule. Thomas Remington