The Tribute System Isn’t Returning to China

🫧 Open on Bubbles Ray Dalio says the world is reverting to China’s ancient order of kowtows and hierarchy, the tribute system. 1 In his account, it runs on deference, not force: lesser powers acknowledge a dominant center, and in return get trade and protection. It’s an order held together by prestige and pressure, not war. He has the system right and the capital wrong. Look at how the tribute system was actually theorized, and how it actually worked, and the labels turn out to be in the wrong places. The p