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  • Very interesting history and culture, plastered over with bland authoritarian turbo-capitalism that disguises itself as communism.

  • The internet has really fucked my brain, because the first thing that comes up in my head is an old meme of The Orange One (back when he hadn't been president yet, and so was funny instead of scary) saying "CHINA CHINA CHINA CHINA CHINA" (sorry)

    AFTER that -- Disney's Mulan, and all the orientalist aesthetics that come with it (sorry²)

    And AFTER that -- Years of internet discourse trying to convince me that a growth in Chinese international power would be worse than the US holding that position alone, which I find EXTREMELY hard to believe as a third world citizen whose home nation has been fucked in the butthole by the Americans like seven different times in lived memory (NOT sorry)

    Then AFTER that -- The stories told by my one friend who lived there for a few months. To be honest they made China seem like a pretty cool place to live in. Or at the very least, a fun experience as an exchange student.

    And AFTER all that -- Bootleg video games. They are interesting!

  • Authortarianism and censorship to the point where I can never return to my former homeland until that changes for the better. No worker's rights. Human rights issues in the north and west in areas that weren't part of China historically.

    Possible conflict with Taiwan (if that happens than I'd be sent to the camps to die by orange cheeto, unless I leave).

    1.4 billion people & had the One Child policy for the longest time.

    Lots of enviornmental problems, air pollution (and apparently much of the country has really really hot heat indices in the summer, avg high of 40C and low of 30C already.... no thanks).

    Really difficult language to learn (tried to learn it back when I was in school, couldn't really and basically forgot it all).

  • Thiefs, low quality, dictatorship, murders, will probably try to fuck up my life in the future.

    • Dude that is the USA. They do have knife guys occasionally but nothing is as terrifying as being a US grade student with an active shooter warning on campus. Besides Japan I've never felt safer that over there.

      • Do you folk have any other talking points than "but USA bad"? This question is not about USA, it's about fucking China.

        You sure nothing's as terrifying? I think being an Uyghur in a Chinese concentration camp might be even worse.

  • My stance is kind of 50/50 with China.

    For one, they're going to flame out even faster than America did. As time moves forward great powers last less and less time. America only held the crown for 80 years. Chinas got its own issues, especially with the population issues.

    Yes, China has a laundry list of human rights abuses. We know all of them, I shouldn't have to list them here. China also is an aggressor country, harassing their neighbors and intimidating them for often no reason at all, and when there is a reason, it's territorial expansion. They steal IP, they steal identities and secrets (yes I know, stealing secrets is an everybody issue, and I'll get to that, but it's usually done with more class) and they gave our kids toys with lead in them. You could seriously go on for days on the bad stuff about China. The belt and road? Fuck, that's so, so bad... However

    They're also leading in science and especially the environment. They've spent big money on their science, and it's paid off in spades for them and it's commendable from an international standpoint. No country on earth is fighting climate change harder than China. From advances in solar panels bringing the cost of clean energy down, and giving the ability to electrify places of the world that have never experienced it? That's pretty dope. Plus their electric car tech is blowing up so hard that it's actually kind of reasonable to tariff it, because they're so far ahead.

    Now the gre(a)y, I'm an American. Half the shit that china does that's bad, was shit that we have been doing for generations. So yeah, china sucks shit. But does it suck more shit than America right now? I say no, but not by much, and mostly because a lot of the problems people try to put on China (i.e. pollution mostly) is because we facilitated that. If not them, it'd be our polluted air and water. And now, he wants to bring that manufacturing back here while deregulating pollutants AND enforcement. He saw 1990s Beijing and said "I want that for us". But basically, other than China's climate and science goals, were the same country. So the nod (barely) goes to China for being a more honorable or good country.

  • I think of China as a country that pretends to be communist while making cheap products that vary in quality. I also think of the nice people that live there though.

  • I'm into Taoism, so I think of Lao Tzu, Chuang Tzu and Chinese philosophy. I love their sense of humor, and humility. I often daydream of a different life, being raised a monk in the Himalayas. A place I like to imagine when mediating

  • Eh, it's a country. I do dig American Chinese food, I know it's not the same.

    Chinese slave-workers helped build the American West, their contribution and sacrifice is rarely recognized.

  • The sets of fancy expensive-looking porcelain plates and cups my older relatives all had on display in a glass-fronted cabinet for use on some theoretical special occasion, but no occasion was ever actually special enough to allow anyone to use it.

  • The first thing I think of is "propaganda" but you might not expect why. I grew up in the western world, hearing constantly that China was basically the epitome of evil. Their government is evil, their people are evil, the very land they walk on is evil, everything they've ever done has been evil. In history we only learned about their crises and the times they caused problems for the western world.

    Unlike my peers, however, this made me curious. Why are you telling me so constantly that they must be evil? Can't there be good people there doing their best just like we are? And then things started getting weird in the western world. Then they got worrying. Then they started really taking their masks off and I realized "ohhhh you were projecting the whole time weren't you?"

    I still don't know much about China. I don't know what your culture is really like, how the people actually treat each other. I don't know basically anything about you. I'd love to learn though, if you're willing to teach.

    • Their government is evil

      I mean... its not entirely false. . I mean, the CCP through the one child policy did try to terminate me, since I was the second pregnancy that my mother had (she already gave birth to my older brother), so they did try to find my mother to force an abortion against her will. Then after I was born, I guess the since I already exist, its too difficult to justify killing someone who was already born, so they just let me live. My parents had to pay like somewhete like ¥10,000 to ¥20,000 (in Renminbi currency) in order for me to get legal documents, which was a lot of money at the time. So yea fuck the CCP.

      But to put in in perspective, it isn't nearly as bad as North Korea, where they totally ban people from leaving.

      their people are evil

      Yea this is total BS. There's nothing in the DNA of ethnic Chinese that make us "evil".

      Unlike my peers, however, this made me curious. Why are you telling me so constantly that they must be evil?

      Like, don't think this is just a western thing.

      Nationalism is a thing in every country.

      In China, they teach people why Japan is evil and all Japanese people are monsters... and I'm like... "all of them?" 🤔

      Then it got weirder when the US was also portrayed as evil... I mean, don't get me wrong, the US has done a lot of evil things. But its was also the US that aided China aginst the japanese invasion of China. Although controvertial, it was the US who nuked japan and that immediately stopped the war and save a lot of Chinese people.

      So yea I get it, every country want to portray others as evil. Its not unique to the west.

      But remember one thing:

      Governments =/= The people whom they rule over

      You can dislike a government without hating the people too

      I still don’t know much about China. I don’t know what your culture is really like

      I mean, tbh, I immigrated to the US as a kid, so I don't know much either.

      I don’t know basically anything about you. I’d love to learn though, if you’re willing to teach.

      I mean... do you have any specific questions to ask?

      • Having two child rule is evil? Why? Rules makes a society, its your mom that try to break the rules? You know why they try to have 1 child policy right?

        Sure they can be evil, but 1 child rule isnt evil. Imagine if 1st world countries suddenly started getting 5-10 childs everyone, everyone taking sueside cus no jobs and heavy competition on school.

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