One of the costliest problems in many countries, in terms of life and property, is the stress between a “melting pot” federal or nationalist power and a tribal or, also, nationalist smaller power.
Kashmir is an example in the news now. Thousands already dead over several decades, and a vast amount of destruction.
This is an issue that drains vast resources from many societies around the world, the U.S., China, India, Russia and many dozens of smaller countries.
A prime example on a small scale, an example that contains all of the basic elements of the issues in larger countries, is Gaza. https://mondoweiss.net/2018/10/everyone-economy-freefall/
Gaza, of course, will never become ‘pacified’. Despite “facts on the ground” nonsense from Israeli politicians in uniform, there is no chance of Gaza becoming utterly conquered along the lines of, for example, the many Native tribes that went extinct in the U.S. and whose people were assimilated. The delusional calculation that ‘maybe a little more misery will cure them’ has many problems. There are always more excuses to continue trying to absorb, or assimilate, or conquer Gaza, but a simple study of the region suggests it is extremely unlikely to have success.
Another example is the Uyghur population in China https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xinjiang_reeducation_camps
If the Chinese had started pacifying the region 400 years ago, and the two populations were highly sympathetic, and if most Uyghers had been killed it still would fail.
In every region of the world there are similar examples that sap the power from mainstream nations.
An outsider who stumbles on one of these conflicts, and who sets aside briefly human nature, will easily see the absurdity of the situation. Like any self destructive behavior, it’s roots are in the past or, to put it a different way, in a reactive resistance to the future. The ‘leaders’ who direct these pacifying actions are not acting, but reacting. And they are not reacting to some supposed threat, they are reacting to their own education, or ‘training’. They have an idea that doesn't make sense for a solution that doesn’t work, to a problem that shouldn't exist, but their education, or training, has blinded them.
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China is a superpower with a very wide range of education among its people. They industrialized not as a natural progression but under economic pressure from potential competitors.
Chinese society is similar to most other societies, except in one respect, its one child policy https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-child_policy
The state influence over birthrate will obviously have many ongoing social effects, and it seems likely that it would be wise for other countries not to ignore the implications.
As China globalized to some extent and industrialized, it took the obvious shortcut of learning certain patterns. It has learned reliably, like all countries, that there has been a historical progression of conduct among countries that can reliably be used to move forward. What neither China nor any other country has learned so far are the long term effects of vast demographic interference by a state, at the level of local law, restricting the number of children a family might have.
Ultimately, the society will start to show social effects of the policy, which will force an intellectual analysis of its roots and possible solutions.
The first conclusion that is likely to be drawn is that the problem did not originate in China, it was imposed. And the reaction to that abroad likewise is equally predictable i.e., a denial that foreign powers influenced China's internal policies.
What makes the situation more interesting though is the role digital currency is likely to play.
In a conventional economy, i.e., a fiat economy, China would become increasingly aggressive territorially i.e., the instinct of its citizens would be to obtain additional land, at whatever cost, and they would become formidably aggressive.
As long as China is a country that is a pretty certain trend and there is not much that can divert it. Chinese people who have some discipline that is a product of the one child policy will necessarily also have a counterbalancing aggression, which will grow as the discipline subsides, and the object of the aggression will be the lack of national physical space, analogous to lebensraum https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lebensraum but with a much more solid natural foundation.
So, lacking the possibility of “new land”, China would be likely to develop a strong interest in expansion that would make use of elements of human nature that so far have never been addressed in the study of politics.
While there isn’t much doubt about the psychological effect the one child policy will have, there are many options as to the way it will manifest in national terms, and digital currency may be the only tool that offers the likelihood of solving all issues relating to that.
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An important issue, often ignored, is the extent to which ‘strategists’ influence society.
Brexit, the supposed British exit from a supposed ‘European Community’, is considered important by people who believe they have some control over things they do not. There is no king now in Europe to help them.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Canute_and_the_tide
Most people who lead political groups are like technical analysts who find a trend, identify something that is going to happen and invest in it, but political leaders often go one step further and try to take credit for what was going to happen anyway.
Thus, clever politicians build false federations, which masquerade as ‘countries’ or ‘alliances’ to the extent that their followers can keep the tide at bay.
Imagine somebody has studied science enough to calculate that the sun will rise at a particular place on the horizon, at a particular time. Should they create an artificial sun to make sure their science works?
~In progress~