• antisoumerde@quokk.au
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    11
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    2 hours ago

    Guys what about China?? Guys OK my country does bad shir but what about Iran guys??? Guys??? What about Hamas guys?? Saddam had nukes guys don’t forget about the tankies??? It’s like feminizm maybe the pendulum is swinging too far the other side guys???

    • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      15
      arrow-down
      12
      ·
      edit-2
      7 hours ago

      Equal opposition to all states just shoots yourself in the foot, though. Should we focus on dismantling Cuban and Palestinian statehood with equal measure to the US Empire? If your goal is anarchism, shouldn’t you be focused on the bigger obstacles to that goal?

  • wraekscadu@vargar.org
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    19
    arrow-down
    7
    ·
    14 hours ago

    China isn’t as successful at imperialism as the Americans. The American ruling class is just… Too good at being evil.

    Doesn’t mean that China and Russia aren’t imperialist though. They’re just unable to beat the US… For now…

    • Jmdatcs@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      arrow-down
      4
      ·
      3 hours ago

      Give them a few years. The belt and road initiative is set to bring levels of exploitation and wealth extraction never before seen. China gets shit done when it wants to and understands the long game.

      • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        5
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        3 hours ago

        This is pure projection.

        China is not debt trapping poor African nations. We can see that this isn’t the case when we can observe countries in BRI engaging in rapid development and industrializing, and this is confirmed by China forgiving tons of debt. The goal of China isn’t to make countries reliant on them, or to earn money from debt, it’s because China gains personally through mutual development. Here are some articles debunking the “debt trap” myth:

        There are many more examples I can use. China isn’t doing this out of the goodness of their own heart, but because they stand to gain from mutual development. A more developed global south means China is less reliant on the US Empire as a customer, provides new avenues to facilitate trade, and creates more markets for customers. The west harvests the global south for cheap labor and resources, and we can see hard comparisons in data between BRI participants and those imperialized by the west to see fundamentally different results.

        • Jmdatcs@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          arrow-down
          5
          ·
          3 hours ago

          They’re turning an entire continent into a sweatshop to feed their own greed and consumerism. They learned from the best! And they’re improving on it through the strength of single party central planning.

            • Jmdatcs@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              1
              arrow-down
              2
              ·
              2 hours ago

              The measure they’re taking to address it is creating vassal states to turn into sweatshops.

              • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                2
                arrow-down
                1
                ·
                2 hours ago

                No? Where on Earth did you get that idea? They are focusing on raising wages and boosting consumption, lowering import fees from global south countries to help their rising industry, and are trying to boost incomes in the countryside.

                • Jmdatcs@lemmy.world
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  1
                  arrow-down
                  1
                  ·
                  2 hours ago

                  Lol, Jesus dude! Are you just plagiarizing U.S. state department talking points from the mid 20th century on U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia and other places in the global south?

    • ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      11
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      13 hours ago

      China and Russia are taking over in the soft imperialism department, because some billionaire moron had to kill USAID. Let’s hope their soft imperialism won’t have really bad consequences human rights-wise (though the US also had a spotty record with that).

      • rockerface🇺🇦@lemmy.cafe
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        21
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        13 hours ago

        Looking at human rights in russia… doesn’t look too good, chief, not gonna lie. At least China pretends for the media.

          • AdolfSchmitler@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            5
            ·
            3 hours ago

            Dude… idk how I fell into it but there’s an account here on lemmy that goes around commenting shit like “fake news” and “your American state media lies to you and its so easy” on posts calling out what China is doing to Uyghurs. Basically denying any wrongdoing by China. Idk if they’re a bot or state agent or paid actor or what. I wonder if they’ll make an appearance on this post…

          • AdolfSchmitler@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            5
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            3 hours ago

            Ahh just scrolled further and they’re here lol. Name is Cowbee. The account is 2 years old, 17,000 comments. All they do is post pro-china shit everywhere they can.

  • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    16
    arrow-down
    15
    ·
    8 hours ago

    It’s not that the west practices “bad imperialism” while China practices “good imperialism,” China isn’t imperialist to begin with. In order to understand why, though, we need to understand what imperialism is to begin with, as well as what causes it.

    As capitalism monopolizes, it is compelled to expand outward in order to fight falling rates of profit by raising absolute profits. The merging of bank and industrial capital into finance capital leads to export of capital, ie outsourcing. This process allows super-exploitation for super-profits, and is known as imperialism. The domination of financial capital in an economy is what compels a country towards outward expansion, forcing privatization and market expansion via diplomacy on the one hand, and bombs in the other.

    This is undeniably true of western countries, who have reached the imperialist stage of capitalism by around the late 19th century, especially the UK, Germany, France, and the US Empire. After World War II, the US Empire became hegemonic, and the western countries vassalized. What’s important is that none of this applies to China.

    China is a socialist country. Public ownership is the principal aspect of the economy, it governs the large firms and key industries and dominates the overall character of the economy. Private ownership exists, but is secondary to that, filling in the gaps left behind by the huge state driven industries in secondary and underdeveloped areas, and is folded into the public sector as it grows. The capitalist class is not allowed to gain political power, and the working classes control the state.

    The key takeaway here for the purposes of imperialism, is that China’s banks are overwhelmingly publicly owned, as are its large firms and key industries, and thus there isn’t the same compulsion towards dominating the global south for profit. Instead, China has mutual cooperation agreements, such as the Belt and Road Initiative and placing zero tariffs on 53 African countries.

    The US Empire alone has hundreds of overseas millitary bases, while China has ~3. The US Empire bombed and destroyed countless countries over the last few decades alone, such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Iran, is embargoing Venezuela and especially Cuba, and more. China is not. The US Empire practices unequal exchange via maintaining monopoly on higher tech, China does not.

    China’s position in the global stage facilitates south-south trade, which bypasses unequal exchange, where the global north maintains monopolies on high tech industries so as to consistently charge monopoly prices in exchange with the global south. China charges non-monopoly prices, and this is why exchange with China, alongside the rise of the Belt and Road Initiative, has resulted in dramatic development in African and Latin American countries. This is ultimately the single greatest contributor to the downfall of imperialism globally, and is why right now there is such a large cold war with China.

    China is not debt trapping poor African nations. We can see that this isn’t the case when we can observe countries in BRI engaging in rapid development and industrializing, and this is confirmed by China forgiving tons of debt. The goal of China isn’t to make countries reliant on them, or to earn money from debt, it’s because China gains personally through mutual development. Here are some articles debunking the “debt trap” myth:

    There are many more examples I can use. China isn’t doing this out of the goodness of their own heart, but because they stand to gain from mutual development. A more developed global south means China is less reliant on the US Empire as a customer, provides new avenues to facilitate trade, and creates more markets for customers. The west harvests the global south for cheap labor and resources, and we can see hard comparisons in data between BRI participants and those imperialized by the west to see fundamentally different results.

    It’s clear at this point: participation in BRI results in sustained and rapid development and mutual cooperation, and working with the west results in sustained impoverishment. China gains from this mutual cooperation, but so do African countries, and unlike the west China doesn’t force trade at the barrel of a gun. That’s part of why it’s mutally beneficial, and results in development in Africa, vs underdevelopment and western enrichment.

    The simple reason why China isn’t economically compelled to imperialize is because it isn’t dominated by finance capital, and thus prioritizes long-term results, as we saw in the beginning. It’s simply better for everyone for there to be mutual cooperation, but western countries are dominated by the profit motive and finance capital, which compels them to take short term gains via looting the global south.

    All in all, trying to equate western imperialism with China’s trade agreements and multi-national projects is the height of projection, and highlights an utter lack of materialist analysis.

    • menas@lemmy.wtf
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      4 hours ago

      okay that seem to be coherent. We are used to define imperialism as “the system produce by the competition between states”. Some domination are note linked (or loosely) with market.

      I understand why it’s interesting to focus on things we can fight on. But a lot of us couldn’t fight the financial market and it’s exportation. However we could blockade exportation of weapons, sending medic kit or foods to people that suffer from domination.

      I’m not saying your definition is wrong, I’m saying that I found it ineffective for an international solidarity of the working class

      • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        5
        arrow-down
        3
        ·
        4 hours ago

        To the contrary, understanding how capitalism turns to imperialism helps us see what countries have revolutionary potential, and how to end imperialism. Imperialism allows the capitalist class in the core to “bribe” their working classes, in the form of huge safety nets like in the nordic countries, or in the form of cheap commodities like in the US. This serves as a pressure valve. However, what this also means is that the contradictions are exported to the imperialized countries.

        That’s why, in the global south, revolutionary movements have peppered the 20th and 21st centuries. Helping countries in the global south fight imperialism includes sabotaging war efforts against Iran and Palestine, for example. When diplomacy fails to force open markets for foreign plunder, imperialist countries turn to bombs. That’s why the US Empire is bombing Iran, to open their markets up for US companies to own Iranian oil production.

        As anti-imperialists, we need to understand the motive forces of imperialism to break them. The solution to end imperialism is to pivot to socialism, and this is genuine international working class solidarity.

    • Alaknár@sopuli.xyz
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      8
      arrow-down
      7
      ·
      3 hours ago

      China isn’t imperialist to begin with.

      AAaahahahahahha, ahhahahahahahahaha, hahahahahahahahahahaha!

      Excellent shitpost, milord!

      • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        7
        arrow-down
        3
        ·
        3 hours ago

        Why do you talk like this? And is that all you can do to counter what I’ve said, just act like it’s ridiculous to avoid engaging with the points raised?

        • Alaknár@sopuli.xyz
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          3
          arrow-down
          6
          ·
          3 hours ago

          The moment you say that “China isn’t imperialist to begin with” you lose all credibility and reading the rest is a waste of time.

          Read about the Belt and Road initiative, the militarisation of the South China Sea, the treatment of Xinjiang, Hong Kong, Tibet, or Taiwan, THEN come back and say with a straight face that “China isn’t imperialist to begin with”. :D

          • cecinestpasunbot@lemmy.ml
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            7
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            3 hours ago

            Sure, the person who refuses to engage with any counter evidence and acts incredibly smug must be the credible one…

            • Alaknár@sopuli.xyz
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              2
              arrow-down
              7
              ·
              3 hours ago

              I’m not going to engage in this discourse, just as much as I won’t engage in the discourse about whether or not the Earth is flat.

              • cecinestpasunbot@lemmy.ml
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                7
                arrow-down
                1
                ·
                3 hours ago

                You are engaging. You’re just doing it in a way that makes you look like you don’t know what you’re talking about.

                • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  3
                  ·
                  1 hour ago

                  Seriously, all they did was legitimize me rhetorically. Focusing on rhetoric is a trap that I try not to fall for, but I can’t really do anything if someone does their best to tank any opposing argument.

          • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            7
            ·
            edit-2
            2 hours ago

            So in other words, the moment you read anything that disagrees with you, you stop thinking immediately and reflexively shut off any and all engagement? Sounds like you’ve holed yourself up in an echo chamber of your own making. I already addressed all of these subjects either here or elsewhere, directly, such as Xinjiang here, Taiwan here, Hong Kong here, and Tibet here. I already explained the Belt and Road Initiative in the comment you claimed to stop reading at the first sentence.

            • Alaknár@sopuli.xyz
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              arrow-down
              5
              ·
              3 hours ago

              So in other words, the moment you read anyone that disagrees with you, you stop thinking immediately and reflexively shut off any and all engagement?

              No. The moment someone makes a claim that is utterly ridiculous in its disregard for facts, I disregard their reasoning.

              If you said “the Earth isn’t round to begin with”, you’d earn an identical reaction.

              Sounds like you’ve holed yourself up in an echo chamber of your own making

              Sounds like you’re projecting.

              • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                5
                ·
                3 hours ago

                My claim isn’t ridiculous though, nor does it have a disregard for facts. In fact, I supported my claims overwhelmingly with western sources that are already biased against China. You would know that if you read my comment, but you won’t let yourself even look at information even from the west that runs counter to your fragile worldview. What makes me a part of an echo chamber, when you’re the one unwilling to even glance at western sources that disagree with you?

    • Sheik@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      12
      arrow-down
      7
      ·
      8 hours ago

      Thank you for sharing this information. Living in an imperialist country makes it hard to understand China’s politics and not fall into some of the propaganda against it, even if you’re careful.

      • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        11
        arrow-down
        4
        ·
        7 hours ago

        No problem! Yea, it can be very difficult, searching in English for example always props up results for NYT, CNN, Fox, etc, and we know how biased these sources are when it comes to, say, Palestine. Understanding how China works is going to be very important going forward.

    • Jmdatcs@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      arrow-down
      5
      ·
      3 hours ago

      China is a neolib paradise, regardless of the name of the single party in control. The belt and road is nothing more than a means to extract wealth from and exploit the global south.

      • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        4
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        3 hours ago

        China being socialist has nothing to do with the name of the party in control, and everything to do with the mode of production and distribution in China. Rather than a neoliberal paradise, it’s closer to a nightmare for neoliberals. This editorial from The Guardian explains it quite well, actually:

        But Xi’s support for mixing private and public ownership structures was purely pragmatic. It had value, he said in another forum, because it would “improve the socialist market economic structure.” Xi’s assessment is echoed by Michael Collins, one of the CIA’s most senior officials for Asia. “The fundamental end of the Communist party of China under Xi Jinping is all the more to control that society politically and economically,” Collins argued earlier this year. “The economy is being viewed, affected and controlled to achieve a political end.”

        The party’s overarching aim, though, has remained consistent: to ensure that the private sector, and individual entrepreneurs, do not become rival players in the political system. The party wants economic growth, but not at the expense of tolerating any organised alternative centres of power.

        “[Capitalists] act as if they are being chased by a bear,” wrote Zhang Lin, a Beijing political commentator, in response to these comments. “They are powerless to control the bear, so they are competing to outrun each other to escape the animal.”

        How then, does China’s economy work? Public ownership is the principal aspect of China’s economy. This means that public ownership governs the large firms and key industries, and is what is rising in China, as private ownership is kept to small and medium non-essential industries. No system is static, meaning identifying the nature of a system depends on identifying what is rising and what is dying away. Cpitalists are held on a tight leash, and are prevented from gaining political power as a class. The reason private ownership is allowed at all is because China has very uneven development due to their rapid industrialization, and private ownership does help with filling in gaps left by the primary aspects of the economy like SOEs.

        The form of democracy and the mode of production in China ensures that there is a connection between the people and the state. Policies like the mass line are in place to ensure this direct connection remains. This is why over 90% of the Chinese population supports the government, and why they have such strong perceptions around democracy:

        The Chinese political system is based on whole-process people’s democracy, a form of consultative democracy. The local government is directly elected, and then these governments elect people to higher rungs, meaning any candidate at the top level must have worked their way up from the bottom and directly proved themselves. Combining this consultative, ground-up democracy with top-down economic planning is the key to China’s success.

        I highly recommend Roland Boer’s Socialism in Power: On the History and Theory of Socialist Governance. Socialist democracy has been imperfect, but has gone through a number of changes and adaptations over the years as we’ve learned more from testing theory to practice. Boer goes over the history behind socialist democracy in this textbook.

        China does have billionaires, as you might then protest. China is in the developing stages of socialism. Between capitalism, which is characterized by private ownership being the principal aspect of the economy and the capitalists in control of the state, and communism, characterized by full collectivization of production and distribution devoid of classes and the state, run along the lines of a common plan, is socialism, where public ownership is principle and the working classes in control. China in particular is working its way out of the initial stages of socialism:

        The reason China has billionaires is because China has private property, and the reason it has private property is because of 2 major factors: the world economy is still dominated by the US empire, and because you cannot simply abolish private property at the stroke of a pen. China tried that already. The Gang of Four tried to dogmatically force a publicly owned and planned economy when the infrastructure best suited to that hadn’t been laid out by markets, and as a consequence growth was positive but highly unstable.

        Why does it matter that the US Empire controls the world economy? Because as capitalism monopolizes, it is compelled to expand outward in order to fight falling rates of profit by raising absolute profits. The merging of bank and industrial capital into finance capital leads to export of capital, ie outsourcing. This process allows super-exploitation for super-profits, and is known as imperialism.

        In the People’s Republic of China, under Mao and later the Gang of Four, growth was overall positive but was unstable. The centrally planned economy had brought great benefits in many areas, but because the productive forces themselves were underdeveloped, economic growth wasn’t steady. There began to be discussion and division in the party, until Deng Xiapoing’s faction pushing for Reform and Opening Up won out, and growth was stabilized.

        Deng’s plan was to introduce market reforms, localized around Special Economic Zones, while maintaining full control over the principle aspects of the economy. Limited private capital would be introduced, especially by luring in foreign investors, such as the US, pivoting from more isolationist positions into one fully immersed in the global marketplace. As the small and medium firms grow into large firms, the state exerts more control and subsumes them more into the public sector. This was a gamble, but unlike what happened to the USSR, this was done in a controlled manner that ended up not undermining the socialist system overall.

        China’s rapidly improving productive forces and cheap labor ended up being an irresistable match for US financial capital, even though the CPC maintained full sovereignty. This is in stark contrast to how the global north traditionally acts imperialistically, because it relies on financial and millitant dominance of the global south. This is why there is a “love/hate” relationship between the US Empire and PRC, the US wants more freedom for capital movement while the CPC is maintaining dominance.

        Fast-forward to today, and the benefits of the CPC’s gamble are paying off. The US Empire is de-industrializing, while China is a productive super-power. The CPC has managed to maintain full control, and while there are neoliberals in China pushing for more liberalization now, the path to exerting more socialization is also open, and the economy is still socialist. It is the job of the CPC to continue building up the productive forces, while gradually winning back more of the benefits the working class enjoyed under the previous era, developing to higher and higher stages of socialism.

        In doing this, China has presented itself to the global south as an alternative to the unequal exchange the global north does with the global south, which is accelerating the development of the global south. China is taking a more indirect method of undermining global imperialism than, say, the USSR, but its been remarkably effective at uplifting the global working classes, especially in China but also in the global south.

        To call China “imperialist” or “capitalist” is to either invent a fantasy of China or to not understand imperialism, capitalism, or socialism. China isn’t a utopia, it’s a real socialist country.

        • Jmdatcs@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          arrow-down
          4
          ·
          3 hours ago

          You can copy paste all the charts and quotes you want. None of that means anything next to the reality on the ground.

          China is great, it’s one of my favorite places to visit. But that’s because I have the money to enjoy it. As soon as you travel a little way away from the glitz of the major cities, leave behind the Michelin starred restaurants, five star hotels, and bullet trains, the poverty is crushing. More so than many other neolib places where you can go to a more rural area to chill. But that’s mostly due to time. Give China a little more time and they’ll continue to make their welfare state more robust through progressive taxation (as is the hallmark of neoliberalism), and it seems like they’ll cleave close to the social democracy side of things, at least for now.

          Anyone who looks at the crushing poverty a large percentage of Chinese live in and the rate they are minting new billionaires and then tries to say their system is in the same universe as socialism is delusional at best and cynically promoting lies to advance an agenda at worst.

          • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            3
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            3 hours ago

            The charts represent what’s actually happening on the ground. The urban/rural divide is one of the biggest problems for China, this is correct. The origin of the issue is in China’s rapid development, which left the countryside lagging behind. However, thanks to their socialist system, they’ve already taken concrete steps towards addressing this.

            Purchasing Power in 2022 was 25 times higher than 1978. The gap between rural and urban development has long been acknowledged and is already something worked on. The famous poverty eraducation campaign, which lifted 800 million people out of absolute poverty, was focused on just that. Read The Metamorphosis of Yuangudui to see what that looks like in practice.

            What separates social democracy from socialism? In social democracy, private ownership is the principal aspect of the economy, and capitalists control the state. In socialism, it’s public ownership that is principal, and the working classes that control the state. I won’t retread old ground here, other than to remind you that China’s economy is overwhelmingly state-driven:

            China does indeed have billionaires, because they still have private property for the small and medium secondary industries. This, however, is not a permanent fixture of the economy, as no economy is static and unmoving. As these firms grow, they are folded into the public sector, advancing socialization of the economy. What do you believe socialism to look like? How can a neoliberal ecomomy be dominated by public ownership, the working classes, and central planning?

            • Jmdatcs@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              1
              arrow-down
              3
              ·
              2 hours ago

              No, what I, and everyone what that has actually been to factories and rural areas of China, has seen is what’s actually happening on the ground. You’re nothing more than a neolib apologist with an Eastern fetish.

              • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                3
                arrow-down
                1
                ·
                2 hours ago

                All you’ve mentioned is that you’ve seen poverty, which I already explained why it exists, and you’ve already explained why you believe it will go away eventually. We both know China is working to remove this with massive social programs. You have not once explained how China is “neoliberal,” nor what you believe socialism to be. I’m a Marxist-Leninist, I hate neoliberalism like what Reagan and Thatcher installed, and neoliberalism is lightyears away from China’s Socialist Market Economy.

                Please, explain what you believe socialism to be, and where you got that idea from. Explain how China is “neoliberal” beyond the vanishing presence of rural poverty.

                • Jmdatcs@lemmy.world
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  1
                  arrow-down
                  3
                  ·
                  2 hours ago

                  Dude, neoliberalism is a huge range, not just those douches. Just because they’re not (currently) as bad as Regan/Thatcher doesn’t mean they’re not neolibs. I’m sure you’ve got tons of copypastas ready to go, but none of them change the fact that China is a great place to be rich and get richer but if you’re poor, the best you can hope for is that your grandchildren have a better life built on the backs of exploited Africans and others in the global south.

  • Vandalismo@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    45
    arrow-down
    10
    ·
    20 hours ago

    US imperialism has set a dictatorship in my country that lasted 21 years, killed and tortured people in the most horrible ways and led to unimaginable inflation, while Chinese imperialism here has been decreasing donkey population by buying them and making a tea that makes you more masculine supposedly.

    • DeckPacker@piefed.social
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      29
      arrow-down
      12
      ·
      10 hours ago

      Well, China also is actively committing a genocide against their Muslim minority and invaded Tibet

      • cecinestpasunbot@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        6
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        2 hours ago

        Most muslim majority countries do not accuse China of genocide. The states that do make this claim are the same ones that are actively supporting an ongoing genocide against Palestinians. Who should we choose to believe?

        • merdaverse@lemmy.zip
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          edit-2
          2 hours ago

          Of course Western governments had no hesitation in denouncing genocide in China before a single body was documented. Yet, when people protested against an actual live streamed genocide, supported by these same governments, they were met with beatdowns by police and criminalization.

          Even today, they will still seriously tell you that this is a genocide:

          And this isn’t:

          The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.

      • merdaverse@lemmy.zip
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        6
        arrow-down
        7
        ·
        8 hours ago

        Haven’t you heard? It was silently downgraded to a cultural genocide, because there was no actual proof of genocide. Cultural genocide is not recognized by the UN, because Western colonial powers started sweating profusely when Lemkin proposed it.

        • Alaknár@sopuli.xyz
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          arrow-down
          4
          ·
          3 hours ago

          Cultural genocide is not recognized by the UN

          This is false.

          Article II

          In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

          1. Killing members of the group;
          2. Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; 3. Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; 4. Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; 5. Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
          Elements of the crime

          The Genocide Convention establishes in Article I that the crime of genocide may take place in the context of an armed conflict, international or non-international, but also in the context of a peaceful situation. (…) The same article establishes the obligation of the contracting parties to prevent and to punish the crime of genocide.

          Bold by me.

            • Alaknár@sopuli.xyz
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              2
              arrow-down
              3
              ·
              3 hours ago

              From your first link:

              Among many other potential reasons, cultural genocide may be committed for religious motives (e.g., iconoclasm which is based on aniconism); as part of a campaign of ethnic cleansing

              This is covered by “intent to destroy (…) ethnical (…) group”.

              From your second link:

              The final prohibited act is the only prohibited act that does not lead to physical or biological destruction, but rather to the destruction of the group as a cultural and social unit

              There will always be political legalese in play, when imperialist powers want to commit genocide, and so they’ll cling to the fact that “cultural genocide” is not specifically mentioned. But, in the case of Uyghurs, it’s a very clear-cut case of both ethnic cleansing and physical genocide (through forced sterilisation and displacement of children).

              • merdaverse@lemmy.zip
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                4
                ·
                3 hours ago

                Here is the human rights report from the United Nations on Xinjiang. It talks of human rights abuses (which there are), but it doesn’t use the word genocide, because it doesn’t meet any definition of genocide, especially not the ones recognized by the UN.

                The Western move to label it genocide before any actual proof is just atrocity propaganda to divert people’s attention towards China, rather than the West’s own crimes against humanity.

          • merdaverse@lemmy.zip
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            8
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            3 hours ago

            The wiki you linked redirects “Uyghur genocide” (which all the people search for due to heavy propaganda) to “Persercution of Uyghurs”. The name of the article was changed, because there is not enough scholarly consensus to define it a genocide. It’s literally in the summary section

          • All Ice In Chains@lemmy.ml
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            5
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            3 hours ago

            Damn, your own source(s) conflict and never come to consensus on the matter of genocide. Rough.

            Even further, the ICC managed to come to a consensus on the Gaza genocide despite accusations of antisemitism and enormous pushback and sanctions from the US and Israel, but even with the influence peddling from racist and colonialist nations like the US and UK, and testimonies from Uyghurs who left Xinjiang, there’s still never been a consensus that Uyghurs in China were victims of genocide. Extra rough.

  • Ganbat@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    63
    arrow-down
    10
    ·
    1 day ago

    I literally said this to a tankie on here once, and they responded “Yes, unironically.”

    Edit: I’m sorry, I said “totalitarianism”. Not better.

  • justlemmyin@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    26
    arrow-down
    3
    ·
    23 hours ago

    At the moment Chinese propaganda is working in a far superior way than murican propaganda, so yes, I agree with the me me.

  • Riverside@reddthat.com
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    11
    arrow-down
    11
    ·
    10 hours ago

    It’s beyond me how after seeing the past years of overt Zionist propaganda denying genocide in most western media, anyone here is still willing to listen to western media on international affairs. Like, haven’t you seen them take the mask off already? How are you trusting BBC’s reporting on China?

      • Riverside@reddthat.com
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        59 minutes ago

        Because people need to believe that the racist propaganda they’ve been fed is correct and that their country is still the best and most moral in the world

    • marxismtomorrow@lemmy.today
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      2 hours ago

      Because they don’t teach critical thinking in any part of the western world. Capitalism abhors critical thinking in the general populace and requires an unintelligent, unquestioning populace to continue to exist.

  • bearboiblake [he/him]@pawb.social
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    17
    arrow-down
    38
    ·
    11 hours ago

    China: persues peaceful reunification with Taiwan

    The West: “LOOK!!! THEY’RE LIKE US! WORSE THAN US!!!” invades nation illegally

    Okay, buddy.

    • ManixT@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      36
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      10 hours ago

      China: Doesn’t even consider Taiwan’s right exist and is forcing their unification with aggressive military incursions in their territory.

      Tankie like you: ALL WEST BAD, ONLY CHINA GOOD AND EVERY VALID CRITICISM IS WESTERN PROPAGANDA.

      Okay, buddy.

      • zbyte64@awful.systems
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        4 hours ago

        You don’t have to be a tankie to recognize that they are enforcing international law. In that context of a civil war their actions are uncharacteristically peaceful.

      • bearboiblake [he/him]@pawb.social
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        7
        arrow-down
        10
        ·
        9 hours ago

        “ANYONE WHO DISAGREES WITH ME MUST BE A TANKIE!!!”

        I’m not a Tankie, and you can check through my entire comment history to easily confirm that. I just can’t help but notice that people have been saying “China is about to attack Taiwan any day now” for years and it never comes. Maybe they’re just not as bad as us?

        • ManixT@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          8
          arrow-down
          3
          ·
          edit-2
          9 hours ago

          The fact you think china is pursuing peaceful unification kind of outs you. They are not giving Taiwan a choice; comply or face death.

          Also I want all nations to behave better, especially Israel and the US right now. I don’t generally think China is bad and the people certainly are not, but bad actions should be called out and criticized regardless of who you are. That’s how we become better people.

          • bearboiblake [he/him]@pawb.social
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            4
            arrow-down
            8
            ·
            8 hours ago

            Israel: does a genocide

            China: flies a plane near a country they’ve been at war with for over 70 years

            Liberals: “hmm yes these seem about the same to me”

            • ManixT@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              3
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              4 hours ago

              Who said anything about being the same? Israel is the worst offender in the world.

              China is planning for an invasion of Taiwan, so they’re certainly putting together a backup plan in case Taiwan doesn’t agree to become part of China. Doesn’t seem like they’d need that sort of thing if they were being truly peaceful.

              It’s also things like your analysis being “flies a plane near a country” that is a sign you aren’t being adequately critical of china and I question your seriousness and reasons.

              I mean, seriously, look at this map and tell me how you consider this “peaceful”:

            • A_Chilean_Cyborg@feddit.cl
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              4
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              edit-2
              6 hours ago

              Maybe ALL imperialism is bad.*

              Fucking first worlders, they don’t seem to understand that countries want to be left alone seemingly.

              edt: I said the wrong word.

              • bearboiblake [he/him]@pawb.social
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                3
                arrow-down
                3
                ·
                8 hours ago

                Maybe ALL imperialism is war.

                That isn’t even true. Imperialism is often spread through soft power. I thought that was the entire point you were making, that China was exerting soft power in an imperialist manner… if China invades Taiwan, I will be right there with you, calling it out, but history has shown that the CPC is quite restrained, and I see no reason for them to change their approach.

        • zqps@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          4
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          9 hours ago

          People have been saying that about Russia for many years until it happened.

          Unlike Trump, most leaders aren’t rushing into things. They wait until conditions are favourable, and there are an incredible number of conditions to take into account for operations like this.

          • bearboiblake [he/him]@pawb.social
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            arrow-down
            2
            ·
            8 hours ago

            Other people wrongly believed that Russia, despite having already invaded Ukraine in 2014, that Russia would not invade Ukraine again, for some reason. I am not those people. I am pointing out to you that they have had those favorable conditions already, a number of times, and no invasion ever came. If you want to believe that they just have just one more condition to take into account before invading Taiwan, you have the right to believe that.

            But the United States is far worse, and that was my entire point. I don’t want to defend China. Fuck China. But the US has done imperialism for centuries at this point

      • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        9
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        edit-2
        5 hours ago

        From the Associated Press, April 10th, 2026:

        Taiwan’s opposition leader met Friday with Chinese President Xi Jinping at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People, the first such encounter in over a decade, with both sides affirming the need for maintaining peace around the self-ruled island that China claims as its territory.

        Both Xi and Cheng Li-wun, the head of the Beijing-friendly Kuomingtang Party, reiterated they wanted to move toward a peaceful reunification of Taiwan and the mainland, though it remains unclear how they would achieve it. China hasn’t ruled out the use of force and has stepped up its military exercises around Taiwan, sending warships and fighter jets closer toward the island and steadily poaching Taiwan’s few remaining diplomatic allies.

        Xi welcomed Cheng and her party’s representatives in the Great Hall of the People, where he usually meets world leaders, to a round of applause from both sides. “The larger trend of compatriots on both sides of the strait walking nearer, closer, and together will not change. This is a historical necessity. We have full confidence in this,” he said.

        “Although people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait live under different systems, we will respect each other and move towards each other,” Cheng said, adding: “We will seek systemic solutions to prevent and avoid war.”

        This is just the reality on the ground. Neither party wants war. The PRC reserves the right to millitant reunification, but is currently working towards peaceful reunification and simply waiting it out, until Taiwan wants it. The PRC has the luxury of time, here, as the PRC continues to rise economically and the US Empire continues to fall, it will only make more and more sense for Taiwan to want to further integrate with the mainland economically. Until then, the people of Taiwan want the status quo, and the PRC is fine to wait it out and continue to push for dialogue.

      • bearboiblake [he/him]@pawb.social
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        10
        arrow-down
        4
        ·
        9 hours ago

        Yes, that’s right. The Chinese Civil War never ended, the KMT and the CPC never signed a peace treaty. The fighting stopped because there was no way to take back control of Taiwan without high casualties - on both sides. Since then, the CPC have been committed to taking back control of Taiwan peacefully. At the moment, the people of Taiwan continue to support independence - but also the One China Policy, which recognizes that there is only One China. The CPC wants to re-unify, but rather than doing that by force, they just maintain their position and encourage peaceful reunification. But there are still moments of tension, of course, each tests the responses of the other, the limits of their radar, and so on. But people aren’t dying.

        By contrast, the US is carpet bombing Iran, at the behest of Israel, because Iran threatens Israel’s lebensraum ambitions to turn the Middle East into Greater Israel. You really believe China is still as bad as the US? Seriously??

        • A_Chilean_Cyborg@feddit.cl
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          5
          arrow-down
          8
          ·
          8 hours ago

          bro, they have said over and over they want to invade, and the Taiwanese don’t want to do nothing to do with China anymore, specially the young ppl, they want to be their own thing.

          • bearboiblake [he/him]@pawb.social
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            10
            arrow-down
            3
            ·
            8 hours ago

            They’ve actually said the opposite, again and again, that they want peaceful reunification. They haven’t ruled out force, because they’re a sovereign state, and a sovereign state never renounces their ability to use force over the territory they claim. The opposite side does the exact same thing for the rest of China, too.

            the Taiwanese don’t want to do nothing to do with China anymore, specially the young ppl, they want to be their own thing.

            That’s great! Then they can and should remain peacefully independent, but if that ever changes in the future, then perhaps they can re-unite, assuming that the CPC remains open to re-unification at that point.

        • A_Chilean_Cyborg@feddit.cl
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          arrow-down
          6
          ·
          8 hours ago

          100% of the people in a country with everything you would expect a country to have and a strong Taiwanese national identity.

          • marxismtomorrow@lemmy.today
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            3
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            2 hours ago

            There is no ‘Taiwanese national identity.’ The KMT eradicated what was left of the native Taiwanese population (to be fair that genocide was started by Japan, like nearly all genocides in East Asia). There are no native ‘taiwanese’ left, just primarily han chinese that invaded, eradicated the native population during a civil war, and declared themselves the last bastion of China.