I generally find Zeihan to be a quack. He's certainly got some interesting ideas, but his thoughts on china seem to be misguided and his american nationalism distracts him from the truth.
This makes government legitimacy the central political object that almost all political discourse revolves around, whether there happens to be a taboo in acknowledging it or not. Following this, policy mistakes become comparatively much harder to reverse in communist countries than in liberal/illiberal democracies, monarchies and pseudo-monarchies.
with Chinese characteristics.
Every nation's leadership, and every political party, has infighting. Just look at all the infighting in US politics: it's a complete mess, and it's really dragging the US down. The US might be able to weather it better because of its stronger economy, but that's not a sure thing.