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this post was submitted on 16 Jan 2026
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China does have long-term planning, I'm not disputing that, I'm disputing the idea that China is predatory towards the global south. These narratives are largely pushed by the west in order to scare the global south away from pivoting to China, whose mutual cooperation programs are proven to result in dramatic and rapid development.
I just don't want to confuse capitalism vs socialism, with Global Domination strategy of USA or China.
They are "socialist" but they aren't doing it out of the idea of greater good of all humankind, they are a dictatorship (currently) and this is self interest so they can be a global logistic player and their port building also includes military access. This is a longterm goal to be the only superpower.
We can't understand why the US Empire's international interactions result in underdevelopment, super-exploitation, and occasionally bombings, coups, and genocide, while China's international interactions result in mutual development, cooperation, and advancement in the global south, without comparing their modes of production. I don't bring up capitalism and socialism because "capitalism bad, therefore international interactions with capitalist countries bad" or "socialism good, therefore socialist interaction internationally good," but because the mode of production is what drives these fundamentally different results.
In capitalism, once the limits of domestic markets are reached, contradictions sharpen unless this exploitation is extended and exported internationally. This is primarily characterized by the presense of monopolies and the dictatorship of finance capital, and the export of capital to the global south. Essentially, as capitalism reaches its natural limits, it's artificially extended by pushing it outward.
In socialism, as in China, humanity is in control, not capital. China's state has control of the finance sector, not capitalists, and the profit motive isn't dominant over production and distribution. This means China takes a long-term strategy of mutual development, not out of the good of their hearts, but because socialism as a mode of production simply works better with mutual cooperation and international stability. Where capitalist countries prey on lesser developed ones, resulting in slowed development in the global south, socialist countries seek cooperation and this results in rapid development.
China is a dictatotship of the proletariat. The working classes control the state, and this results in huge rates of satisfaction with democracy in China:
This is projection. China's self-interest is in mutual development and stability, China has no interest in being a super-power, because the utility in being a super-power is only to super-exploit the global south. It's incredibly expensive and resource intensive to maintain an empire, and while imperialists make this back in super-profits, this is a temporary measure, as the current death of the US Empire is proving. China wants to continue to prosper, and it needs a developed global south and international stability to do so.
That is why they are fundamentally different.
From ex pats of China, they disagree with you that there is huge rates of satisfaction or "democracy".
You are trying to paint a pleasant picture on the web, but people who have left it disagree with you.
People leaving countries tend to not like them as much as those who choose to stay. Lots of people left China after the communists first took power. I work with a few Chinese ex-pats, and they don't seem to dislike China at all, and visit often. Moreover, people within China approve their government at rates exceeding 90%. This is consistent and regularly found. You're trying to paint a negative picture on the web, but the vast majority of Chinese citizens seem to like China, despite your fearmongering.
I implore you to actually listen to Chinese citizens, and hard data showing consistent and strong satisfaction within China. You seem to be working backwards from the conclusion "China bad," and jump to any evidence backing that, no matter how flimsy.
Chinese citizens have to tow the line. The company I worked for had operations there, when our guys meet with counterparts then and ask probing questions everyone clams up, and one off to the side says we can't talk about bad things.
If you go against it you have reprogramming training classes.
We even have Chinese police stations here in Canada and they go knocking on doors because a Chinese citizen has said something negative about the homeland. And coerce them into going back to the mainland. This is not me reading it on the web, this is coworkers at the house when it happens to their room mates.
Stop trying to make China a utopia it is not. I agree with Socialism, but not a dictatorship.
It woukd seem you are being paid to promote China propaganda, or you are severely deluded to what goes on there.
A survey of citizens that know they cannot speak ll without retribution to them or their family, will always look positive. Please use some critical thinking here.
There's no such thing as brainwashing, or "reprogramming" as you call it. The idea that one can force the mind of another into believing something contrary to reality via "mind control" was invented by Edward Hunter, as a way to explain why Chinese soldiers supported socialism during the Korean War. The CIA tried to make it happen with projects like MK Ultra, which all failed to produce any evidence that brainwashing is possible.
China isn't a utopia, it has a long way to go, but it's a socialist country where the working classes are in control of the state. China is more democratic than Canada, where capitalists dominate the state and the government gives standing ovations to Nazis.
I wish I was paid by the CPC to debunk anticommunist myths and promote socialism, but instead I pay dues to the org I work with. It's because I study China and Marxism-Leninism that I support them. If you want an introduction to the Chinese system of socialism, I recommend Roland Boer's Socialism with Chinese Characteristics: A Guide for Foreigners. It's helpful for understanding how China's system works.
I think it's pretty clear by now that I have the beliefs I do because I've put a great deal of effort into studying China, Marxism-Leninism, and have looked into common allegations against them as part of that process. I'd appreciate it if you didn't try to explain that away by calling me "deluded." Even if I were paid by the CPC, it wouldn't change the merit of what I have to say one bit, it would only reveal motive.
I suggest reading Support for government in China: is the data accurate?
Brainwashing by some pseudo mind control is not how it works, its indoctrination by rote. Same as cults or religious faith. There core belief is altered to somebody elses way.
Of course if you were paid it would change the merit.
You seriously don't seem to understand critical thinking. And this is a waste of time
Have a good evening.
Good thing you're immune to it
There's no "indoctrination by rote." Again, the CIA tried to do this, and could not get it to work. This is a conspiracy theory. Further, whether or not I get paid to write what I do has no impact on the truth of what I say, like I already said it would just prove motivation for it, but the claims themselves are independent of that motive.
I understand critical thinking well enough, resorting to insults when you can't effectively counter the points I raise doesn't help your points, it hurts them rhetorically.
It is not an insult, it is fact. You are spouting rhetoric without actually thinking about what you relay. CIA tries over a small period in an experiment, bad results.
But Dude look up cults and how their leaders get them to do things like drink poison or murder for them. Or have a extreme group suicide bomb themselves. Indoctrination.
If you raise a kid and tell him everyday that black people are bad, they believe it and perpetuate it. Indoctrination.
You are being what the rest of the world criticizes China for doing to its citizens. Being single minded with out a way to see past the delusions, and regurgitate random info without actually disseminating the root of things.
Again, you thinking being paid or not doesn't change the merit , it absolutely does.
Just like when red state newspapers report on news: they have to slant it to favour the payer or you don't get paid. It's how control works.
If you don't see this, then that is highly unfortunate that you can't see the truth.
I think about what I write quite a lot, actually. People don't become indoctrinated, they license themselves to believe that that which they think is beneficial to them is good. The essay Masses, Elites, and Rebels: The Theory of "Brainwashing" explains this phenomenon quite well. I'm aware of suicide bombers, cults, etc, but these aren't a result of "reprogramming" or whatever you think China is doing, but instead due to people willingly believing that it's correct.
The rest of the world doesn't criticize China for this though, only westerners who've licensed themselves into thinking China is some dystopia. I haven't regurgitated random info, I've directly answered your claims and built up my own defenses for mine.
I'm aware of how bias works in media, but it doesn't mean that everything they say is wrong. If they said the sky is blue, it would be correct even if they were being paid to say so. What you believe about China comes from people paid to discredit it, after all, so your argument is more that we can't believe what anyone has to say if they are paid to say it.
This doesn't even matter here, though, as I don't get paid to do so.
Its funny how you disprove your own "mind control" narrative by attempting it and failing to do it.
No, that’s not a thing.
No, you don’t. That’s not a real thing, either. You’re just regurgitating Cold War II propaganda nonsense you saw on TV.
Why are you making shit up? At this point I think you made the company up, too.
I think you’re projecting. Why are you peddling anti-China lies for free?
During the cold war, the anticommunist ideological framework could transform any data about existing communist societies into hostile evidence. If the Soviets refused to negotiate a point, they were intransigent and belligerent; if they appeared willing to make concessions, this was but a skillful ploy to put us off our guard. By opposing arms limitations, they would have demonstrated their aggressive intent; but when in fact they supported most armament treaties, it was because they were mendacious and manipulative. If the churches in the USSR were empty, this demonstrated that religion was suppressed; but if the churches were full, this meant the people were rejecting the regime's atheistic ideology. If the workers went on strike (as happened on infrequent occasions), this was evidence of their alienation from the collectivist system; if they didn't go on strike, this was because they were intimidated and lacked freedom. A scarcity of consumer goods demonstrated the failure of the economic system; an improvement in consumer supplies meant only that the leaders were attempting to placate a restive population and so maintain a firmer hold over them.
If communists in the United States played an important role struggling for the rights of workers, the poor, African-Americans, women, and others, this was only their guileful way of gathering support among disfranchised groups and gaining power for themselves. How one gained power by fighting for the rights of powerless groups was never explained. What we are dealing with is a nonfalsifiable orthodoxy, so assiduously marketed by the ruling interests that it affected people across the entire political spectrum.
I am. They lead me to believe you’re full of shit.
What is the source for that quote about the cold war?
Blackshirts and Reds by Michael Parenti
So your "evidence" for that is a personal anecdote + trust me bro? Assuming you're not just making shit (it's not verifiable, as anecdotes tends to be) can you give examples of the kind of "probing questions" your guys asked? Also, did you personally witness the meeting or were you just told about it by your guys afterward?
Looks to me like your little story is full of holes at best.
Ah, yes. China totally has a nation spanning network of secret police stations (with all the 10s of 1000s or more personnel and tons of equipment that would imply) in Canada that Canada either somehow didn't notice or won't do anything about for some reason. A guy you know told you, so it must be true! Trust me bro!
If your gonna make shit up or repeat shit made up by someone else, you should at least try to make it not completely nonsensical.
No one said anything about China being "a utopia" and you know it.
You know how ridiculous your narrative about China being a 1984 tech-dystopia that will track you down to the end of the world sounds and how badly it holds up to scrutiny, so instead of defending your narrative (since you can't really) you try to flip the table around and pretend that we are the one with a ridiculous narrative by pretending that we consider China "a utopia" when none of what we have said points to that at all.
I see it, and anyone who isn't already indoctrinated by you narrative can easily see it too.
"If you believe something other that what I believe, you must either have been paid to say you do or be stupid/insane." A cheap excuse to dismiss criticism without having to think about it or come up with an actual counter-argument.
That, my friend, is what we call an "irrefutable argument", and it's a fallacy. "Chinese peoples aren't happy with their government, and if they say they are it's because the government forces them to." It's a bullshit excuse to immediately reject any evidence that doesn't agree with your narrative.
You're not refuting our point, you're just coming up with excuses to dismiss it without having to think about an actual reason it might be wrong (because you can't, and until you do I'll continue to affirm that you can't).
And I know an expat family from China who are communists and broadly support China and the CPC.
Tit for tat anecdotes don't Trump actual data.
You really trying to counter polling and evidence with "well I talked to a guy who said otherwise"?