this post was submitted on 31 Jul 2023
223 points (80.2% liked)
World News
32306 readers
800 users here now
News from around the world!
Rules:
-
Please only post links to actual news sources, no tabloid sites, etc
-
No NSFW content
-
No hate speech, bigotry, propaganda, etc
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I found this to be a decent enough primer: https://medium.com/@bobbyarlan/a-case-study-in-racist-anti-chinese-sentiment-fuelled-by-american-bots-and-western-propaganda-f0a69978d568
A decent TLDR: The article argues that anti-Chinese propaganda spread by the U.S. and Western media is fueling racist sentiment. Claims of mass detention of Uyghurs are based on flawed studies and sources like Adrian Zenz, a far-right Christian fundamentalist. Atrocity propaganda is a common tactic used by the U.S. to justify wars. The U.S. is threatened by China's economic rise and technological progress, so it is trying to portray China negatively and prepare public opinion for a potential conflict. However, most of the world sees China positively and as an economic opportunity, making a new Cold War against China unlikely to succeed
In short, a lot of information about China that has come out of Western news media has been proven to be based on known biased sources, known anit-China rhetoric, and/or outright lies. It's difficult to prove/disprove of any information specifically, that takes time and reporting, but a lot of people see the anti-China pattern in BBC reporting, and tend to dismiss it because of known history.
I think this flies a bit too far in the other direction. China is totalitarian. It is not a democracy. It is also increasingly antagonizing nations abroad. I think it is valid to consider it a threat if you are any other nation, period.
Edit: Kinda like Russia
How many seats are in the highest legislative body?
What rights and responsibilities do autonomous regions within China have?
What is the most distributed government legislative committee type and what is their role in the government?
So... No, it's not like Russia at all. But that nuance is too long for me to explain right now. Short answer is that Russia is capitalist, and China is 50/50 capitalist/socialist, depending on definitions, and yeah a lot of nuance.
But China is run by the people, their authoritarian politics keeps their billionaires and induatry in check. Their local politics is a negotiation with the national politics.
And... How exactly is China antagonizing nations abroad? Because a lot of countries are choosing to work with China because they AREN'T antagonizing them as much as America and Europe. So... The reality is the opposite.
I mean, if you haven't been there or don't know anyone from there you could pretend they are a democracy, but they are authoritarian like Russia is authoritarian. Long term they will seek a wider swath to be authoritarian over.
And the argument from ignorance continues.
All I have to say is read more and be online less.
It's not from ignorance. It's based on the people I know from China.
Newsflash, you can find people in any country who don't like their government, and you'll obviously see these people over represented in the population that left the country. The fallacy of your argument is to conclude that the people you know hold the opinion of the majority of people in China. I made plenty of friends who from China in university, and most of them went back after graduating. Vast majority of people in China support their government and are proud of their country. Even western polling admits this.
Cool story. China is still authoritarian.
China is a one party system with a "president" for life. Fancy that up all you want: still authoritarian with a dictator.
You used so many words to tell us that you don't know anything about Chinese political system and expose yourself as being confidently wrong. Maybe spend some time educating yourself instead of flaunting your ignorance in public.
If you thought that was "so many words" reality is too complicated for you.
"The Government of the People's Republic of China is a unitary Marxist–Leninist one-party authoritarian political system under the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_of_China
I look forward to you correcting that wiki page lol
did you really just quote wikipedia and think it won you the argument hahaha
The fact that you use a wiki page as an authoritative source just further exposes what an utter clown you are. Let's correct that for you:
The people who actually live in China consider their democracy to work far better than pretty much any western shithole country that calls itself a democracy and have consistently higher satisfaction with their government because unlike in the west they see it working in their interest.
Thinking that the number of parties is a measure of democracy demonstrates an infantile understanding of the concept. Democracy is a government that works in the interest of the majority and is held accountable by the majority. Procedural democracies such as seen in the west demonstrably produce terrible results in practice. As a recent study of US shows, the system does not actually work in a democratic fashion
Since your cognitive development stops at reading wiki articles here's another one you should read https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_centralism
Common Yog... Send me another rant haha
Here. I'll help: What are the other political parties in China?
Here you go ignoramus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_political_parties_in_China
I dunno man "these parties must accept the "leading role" of the CCP as a condition of their continued existence."
Sounds like authoritarian with extra steps. But anyways. Fuck the CCP. They are a threat to me and mine so... Yea. Fuck em hard
"eight minor political parties subservient to the CCP"
Subservient to the CCP eh... So only one party
Sounds like a great edit for the wiki! Can't wait to see your updates!
Today I learned that there are people out there who so imbecilic that they treat wikipedia as some oracle of truth.
So if I said "fuck the CCP" in China that'd be ok right?
Yes, it's legal to be an idiot in China.
I know. I've been there enough to meet plenty. Not really unique to China tho
Or you know, you could just listen to someone who was in an internment camp:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/04/muslim-minority-teacher-50-tells-of-forced-sterilisation-in-xinjiang-china
(Also your summary sounds like ChatGPT)
Or the fact we literally have drone and camera footage of mass arrests. I'm not one to view Vice these days, but one of their reporters went there and saw some rather suggestive situations as well.
After Trump was so nice (dumb) enough to showcase just how clear US satellite photos are these days, one has to question why some here are so quick to cry in China's defense. Especially after the very public take over of Hong Kong, you think an ethnic cleanse is out of the question?
I'm sure some pro-Chinese twit will come rushing in with some whataboutism or a crack on US history, as if that excuses things.
After China followed the diplomatic agreement it had with Britain for decades to handle the transition from Hong Kong being a British colony back to it being under the jurisdiction of its own nation (as a Special Autonomous Region exempted, like other such regions, from a great portion of federal law), now that means China will do ethnic cleansing? Most of Hong Kong supports the mainland, but that falls very much along class lines. The protestors you saw on western news 24/7 for a while were mostly members of wealthier families who don't represent the majority.
I have mixed feelings about the protest itself in that I think back when it was more fragmented there were surely meaningful segments that weren't concerned about an extremely normal (but now withdrawn anyway) extradition law, but once it became the Five Demands and begging for their white colonizers to return, the highest credit I can give them is that they still were at least dignified enough to turn away Azov fascists who visited them.
Our you could just listen to someone from Kuwait who saw Iraqi invaders remove babies from incubators:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nayirah_testimony
Oh wait, they made that shit up as a pretext for furthering US foreign interests.
Nah they have a typo ("anit-China") in their summary I think they're fine.
It was a neutral way to summarize a long article.