How do you solve a problem like China?

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AGinAg (37)

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Obviously since messing with Hong Kong's sovereignty they are day by day becoming the media and various governments new big bad boy.

I do suspect they've made a power grab under the shadow of coronavirus, which does raise my suspicions(!). Fuck knows if this is the start of something else or even a continuation. Obviously there's also the alleged Muslim camps in Western China.

I'm far from an expert on the matter, but my brother lives there.
 
There’s not much to solve, the West has to accept the fact that China as a superpower is here to stay. What we could do is too keep them out of buying our companies, especially now post-Corona, but I think the EU are already going down the protectionist route to prevent China (and Russia), which I guess is good.

If the war on terrorism and the financial crisis brought the West to its knees, it feels like the Corona crisis has decapitated it.
 
Oh I know. The Chinese rise to domination has been half a century in the making. Nice governments don't make good superpowers.
 
Exactly. And so while the West is rotting from the inside, it won’t be able to stop China.


On the other hand, up until the 80’s Japan seemed unstoppable, then in the 90’s it stagnated. Same thing might happen to China. Japan was however never a military power, China is.
 
yeah, Japan in modern times was only ever an economic superpower. its geopolitical significance has always been puppeteered by the US, thus not a contender in the sense that China has become. Abe is trying to amend the constitution which would allow them to re-militarize but still no luck
 
China is a creepy superpower. the images from the indoctrination camps in particular are chilling. I don't think it can be "solved" but I do hope the EU will be able to hold its stance, despite rather aggressive diplomacy as seen in both Sweden and Denmark and no doubt other European countries too
 
Rumours circulating in Twitter that Xi Jinping is under house arrest and an army general has taken over.

Flights and trains coming in and out of Beijing have been cancelled is the supposed evidence.

Probably untrue, but WHO KNOWS?
 
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ONE DYSFUNCTIONAL NUCLEAR SUPERPOWER AT A TIME PLEASE CHINA
 
Although this thread does point to a rumour amplified primarily in India.

 
Yeah the only thing I saw scrolling through Twitter was a video of some tanks driving down a motorway, which could have been ANYWHERE.
 
A couple of weeks ago I watched a video on youtube about how badly hit the Chinese economy has been lately and how it’s about to collapse anytime soon. Since then my feed has been full suggestions of similar videos, most of them seem to be done by Indians.
 
RaspberrySwirl said:
A couple of weeks ago I watched a video on youtube about how badly hit the Chinese economy has been lately and how it’s about to collapse anytime soon. Since then my feed has been full suggestions of similar videos, most of them seem to be done by Indians.
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I knew there was a conflict on the China/ India border. Didn't realise there was an Indian propaganda machine working against Chinese interests.
 
Ag said:
I knew there was a conflict on the China/ India border. Didn't realise there was an Indian propaganda machine working against Chinese interests.
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The animosity between the two seems so much bigger than the little border conflict. China is a big ally to Pakistan so maybe that’s why.

I don’t know why India can’t ally with the West regarding Russia too, but I guess they want to maximize their leverage somehow.
 
RaspberrySwirl said:
I don’t know why India can’t ally with the West regarding Russia too, but I guess they want to maximize their leverage somehow.
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Yeah, that really threw me as well. I guess they're hedging their bits.

Also India is a massive and diverse country, not a homogeneous single voice.
 
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So people are kicking off at the extreme Covid rules, with supposedly major protests across major Chinese cities (although I'm often cynical at BBC reporting of China).

My brother says people have getting annoyed for months. Whole neighbourhoods are being locked down based on one covid case.
 
Ag said:
So people are kicking off at the extreme Covid rules, with supposedly major protests across major Chinese cities (although I'm often cynical at BBC reporting of China).

My brother says people have getting annoyed for months. Whole neighbourhoods are being locked down based on one covid case.
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Well no wonder, if they find a case of covid in an office they close the place with everyone inside for weeks, same with malls and other places, it's absolutely insane. If this is true, because it's hard to believe.
 
Ag said:
So people are kicking off at the extreme Covid rules, with supposedly major protests across major Chinese cities (although I'm often cynical at BBC reporting of China).

My brother says people have getting annoyed for months. Whole neighbourhoods are being locked down based on one covid case.
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And yet their vaccination rates for over 80s are worse than the UK's were by the end of January 2021. Mindboggling.
 
They have the most number of cases of covid ever, which is absolutely insane if the confine everyone, How is that even possible? It was reported everywhere a couple of days ago, god knows what's true or not.
 
I was talking to a Chinese person, whose mother is stuck in Urumqi, and he said that Xi Jinping is insistent on this policy because he wants to prove to the world that 'his' 'Chinese' way is superior to that of the West's - who the CCP scoffs at because the West 'allowed' their people to childishly resist their govts' leadership during Covid. Whereas China will eradicate it better, because the Chinese are 'disciplined' and 'compliant'.

I know it's very cliche, but it reminds me of just how PETTY politics ultimately is.
 
It's funny, reading the comments from 2020, how fast the world moves.

I guess - back then - the West seemed like it was a mess. But today, post-Ukraine and post-Trump, it seems far more unified, and galvanised, and clear about what it will and won't accept in a multi-polar world.

The decline of the West has always been greatly exaggerated. :disco:
 
Loufoque said:
I guess - back then - the West seemed like it was a mess. But today, post-Ukraine and post-Trump, it seems far more unified, and galvanised, and clear about what it will and won't accept in a multi-polar world.
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I guess this means the west is okay with Iran fucking its citizens, Turkey invading Syria once again and Azerbaijan stealing chunks of Armenia.
 
Loufoque said:
It's funny, reading the comments from 2020, how fast the world moves.

I guess - back then - the West seemed like it was a mess. But today, post-Ukraine and post-Trump, it seems far more unified, and galvanised, and clear about what it will and won't accept in a multi-polar world.

The decline of the West has always been greatly exaggerated. :disco:
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I was going to say that China seems a bit weaker today and the West more united, but I’m not ready to relax yet.
 
Biden's brought in some eyewateringly tough blockades on China getting access to needed human capital for developing or accessing microchips (which basically needs either Taiwanese or other Western-allied trained specialists in the industry, or China to train and build its own industry from scratch - the job of about a decade at least). China invading Taiwan feels a lot less realistic a prospect than it did this time a year ago.
 
For all the bad press he gets right now, it's fascinating how, barring a massive fuck up in the next two years, Biden is highly likely to rank as a genuinely top tier President. It's remarkable what he's been able to get through.
 
Queen of the Bay said:
I guess this means the west is okay with Iran fucking its citizens, Turkey invading Syria once again and Azerbaijan stealing chunks of Armenia.
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Obviously there is still a lot of 'selective outrage' but I think the West stands with the Iranian protests, no? Armenia / Azerbaijan is complicated by the fact that Armenia is technically in military alliance with Russia and Azerbaijan is an alternative to Russian gas. I don't know enough about Turkey / Syria to comment.

In any case, the current situation is preferable to the 2020 scenario, where you had people bleating on that it was better to live in a Chinese-style system because "they got Covid under control".
 
Moopy, are you Team String of Pearls or Team Necklace of Diamonds?



Not to pit grande dames against each other, but normally I would have been #teamIndia as a counterforce to China, but India has mostly been on the wrong side of the Ukraine war, also I don’t trust their ability to pull this off either so… fuck them both, I guess?
 
Definitely fuck them both. Flagrantly cunt governments who have shown zero concern for the people suffering in the war. Throw the whole jewelry box away 🚮
 
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Despite all the bellicose, self-aggrandising rhetoric that's prevalent in official narratives here and the nationalist indoctrination that begins at kindergarten level, I really don't think that there's any appetite for war amongst the majority of Chinese. Of course, the problem of living in this kind of political system is that the will of the majority is subservient to the whims of a maniacal old despot. But a big part of China's present-day braggadocio is: a) the decades of relative peace, stability, and increasing prosperity that have been maintained since Mao's death; and b) the fact that they don't start international conflagrations unlike certain Western powers. An invasion across the strait fucks both those things up very royally. And I'm no military tactician, but my understanding is that trying to conquer island nations (esp ones as mountainous and rugged as Taiwan) is a recipe for protracted disaster, even for a military that's as advanced and fanatical as the modern PLA. Note also that the main concerns for Chinese today are economic ones (youth unemployment is up, businesses are stagnating or dying, and a demographic crisis is already here). Even Xi - who isn't anywhere near the cunning, Machiavellian master of the long game that Westerners believe him to be imo - will be aware that there's a far greater risk of unravelling his legacy than building upon it if he goes all-out in chasing 'reunification'.

Taiwan's a beautiful country with incredible people, and despite all the bullshit about it being some breakaway province that needs to be brought back under the fold, it's culturally distinct from China proper. Anyone that's travelled to both can tell you that the people are very much not the same, lol. I was there a couple of years ago and spoke openly about the threat from China with locals (including military personnel) and no one gave much credence to the prospect of a looming invasion. Chatting with Taiwanese friends today makes me believe that's still the case, though I do think continued US/Western/Allied support is absolutely crucial for keeping Xi at bay. And the US being the capricious wildcard that it is under the current administration isn't helping.

Anyway, I'm so fucking done with the very idea of geopolitical superpowers and their obsession with throwing their weight around on the global stage to the detriment of others. I hope they ALL crumble, bleurgh!
 
Also, reading back on this thread is much fun! Like this titbit:

AGinAg (37) said:
So people are kicking off at the extreme Covid rules, with supposedly major protests across major Chinese cities (although I'm often cynical at BBC reporting of China).
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Can CONFIRM - I was THERE! :disco: (And conveniently got placed under effective house arrest for a few days afterwards, ha!)
 
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