• FunkyStuff@lemmy.ml
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        5 hours ago

        Can you enlighten us as to how China is authoritarian in a way that Europe isn’t? Because as far as I can tell, even if literally every single thing China is accused of by anyone is true, this is what their major crimes amount to:

        • Killing 10,000 protesters in Tiananmen Square
        • Imprisoning 1M Uighurs in Xinjiang
        • Sterilizing, abusing, and killing some number of Uighurs in Xinjiang, I’ve never seen numbers accompanying this claim
        • Suppressing Tibetan religious identity
        • Lack of queer rights
        • Not respecting Taiwan’s sovereignty
        • Suppressing political speech that goes against the government
        • General religious persecution of several religious minorities other than those mentioned above; Falun Gong, Christians, other Muslims, etc
        • Aggression toward their neighbors like India and the Philippines
        • Support of Russia during their invasion of Ukraine
        • Support of Myanmar during the Rohingya genocide

        Let me know if I missed any.

        Meanwhile, (mainly Western) Europe definitely has done the following in the past 50 years:

        • Funded and supported Israel’s genocide in Gaza, killing anywhere from 50,000 people per the Health Ministry to 500,000 per Donald Trump
        • Mostly refused to recognize a Palestinian state until quite recently
        • Exploited peripheral European states economically
        • Continued to hold assets belonging to former colonies in the Global South
        • Collaborated with the US to destroy the USSR and strip it for parts, causing one of the largest peace-time drop in life expectancy in history, and unleashing rampant economic and sexual exploitation
        • Allow thousands of immigrants to die in the Mediterranean to prevent them from reaching the continent.
        • Joined the US invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan
        • Joined NATO actions to destroy the Libyan government, leaving the country in a state of utter chaos and making it one of the only places on earth with open air slave markets
        • NATO actions against Yugoslavia and Serbia (granted, to intervene in a genocide, but in a way that was not done to intervene in the Rwandan genocide; this suggests the intervention was primarily motivated by an extractive, imperialist interest)
        • Islamophobia; Hijab bans, rampant hate speech, racially stratified economies.
        • Backsliding queer rights in some countries, total lack in others.

        I think there’s probably more I could go into, but I think that’s at least enough to make my case. If you want to believe China is authoritarian because you believe every point in the upper half is true, then I won’t stop you. But you’re on some craaaazy wypipo logic if you think the points in the bottom don’t mean that the same label ought to be applied to Europe.

          • orc_princess@lemmy.ml
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            4 hours ago

            I met people from China who unlike you understand their government is a proletarian democracy (which is different from a liberal democracy in many ways), you can even meet Chinese people here who’ll tell you that their government is democratic, but it’s not THAT hard to learn about a system you don’t understand by at least watching YouTube if you don’t have the patience or habit of sitting down to read.

            I haven’t been to China because I’m poor and on the other side of the globe, have you been there yourself? There are nice videos by tourists that show that China is just… a country. Very advanced, great infrastructure, but not what you seem to believe it is.

            • keepthepace@tarte.nuage-libre.fr
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              4 hours ago

              I have been there, to several places. I have friends there. I know Chinese outside of China. They are not hard to find.

              If you live in a big city, there are Chinese places. Go there and try to talk Chinese politics with anyone there, see what’s the general feeling. Sample that with a random European place and see how more easily you can talk politics with a French or an Italian. Thing is, China sends policemen to check the Chinese abroad behave correctly. Even outside China, they are on their toes.

              That’s your homework before you try to explain to people online things about a country you never experienced.

              There are nice videos by tourists that show that China is just… a country. Very advanced, great infrastructure, but not what you seem to believe it is.

              China is far more advanced than most westerners believe, even though they start updating their views a bit. I also heard Dubai and Tel Aviv are very nice city to live in. Which tells you nothing about the ills of their governments.

              • orc_princess@lemmy.ml
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                3 hours ago

                There are Chinese people here, surely their opinion is more trustworthy than yours. If you’re gonna propagate conspiracy theories at least do the work of sourcing it. Finally, I’ve met Venezuelans who celebrated their own country being bombed, I’ve met Cubans encouraging brutal sanctions against their own people, same with diasporas from every other country that’s not a US neocolony or vassal. Them having roots from a place doesn’t mean they’re necessarily informed. If you meet them in the west then your sample size is people who left and people who were born to people who left. Many diaspora communities are literally connected to far-right dictatorships, militias, counter-revolutionaries and so on and on. But I’m sure your opinion matters more than the opinion of Chinese people living in China, chauvinist.

          • FunkyStuff@lemmy.ml
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            4 hours ago

            I’ve interacted with 5 - 7 Chinese users over Lemmy recently ish. Haven’t been, but one of my close friends went to Hong Kong pretty recently and enjoyed their time.

            • keepthepace@tarte.nuage-libre.fr
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              4 hours ago

              LOL. Worked with Chinese, discussed politics with Chinese (outside of China, for obvious reason to anyone who met any Chinese citizen). Try to get first hand accounts before praising one of the strictest censorship in the world. And learn a bit about the specifics of Hong-Kong, or better, meet activists there if this is your sample of China

                  • RiverRock@lemmy.ml
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                    1 hour ago

                    Lol the Chinese person you’re talking to who disagrees with you is totally fake but “the Chinese” (not Chinese people, just “Chinese”) people you talk to who go to another school in Canada and totally back up everything you say, honest, definitely exist.

                    Between you and the guy in this thread lying about being aboriginal, why are liberals such pathetic liars? Don’t you believe in your own ideology, you don’t think it can stand up for itself without going AsABlackMan?

                  • QinShiHuangsShlong@lemmy.ml
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                    3 hours ago

                    Believe it or don’t you chauvinist ass doesn’t change the reality. I talk politics online and in person with everyone from DiDi drivers to friends and family to small talk with strangers. I and my parents have seen our hometown go from desperate poverty to a semi affluent area with good connections to nearby major cities. You are an arrogant loser who talks with such authority with an understanding thinner than a sheet of paper. The vast majority of Chinese people support/trust the government even western institutionsbseebthat and put it at 70-95%. So take your uneducated vendetta and fuck off.

                  • FunkyStuff@lemmy.ml
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                    3 hours ago

                    Ok so you don’t even read the comments of the people who reply to you but you know enough that you can determine this person isn’t Chinese? Just because? You can literally check their profile and their profile on Hexbear, @QinShiHuangsShlong@hexbear.net