On the one hand, hooray for supporting the development of infrastructure in Africa and stuff. On the other hand, booooo for being a top trading partner with the Zionist Entity, and selling drones to Indonesia, and all that.
So what the Hell do you make of it all! Like I get that there's this term called "realpolitik" which is somehow relevant, but I'd like a longer explanation than just one word. Like how does the good and the bad fit together at its core?
You could certainly write tomes about this topic — many people have done exactly that — and maybe I'm being a bit incurious to expect someone to serve me a quick answer on a silver platter instead of diving into as many articles and PDF books as I can get my hands on... But I'm also just kind of tired of having such extremely underdeveloped views on the most populous AES state and country in general, after I came to unlearn or mistrust whichever views I'd had on China previously.
Wow imagine not thinking about the rest of the world, couldn't be me (lives in a country with a population smaller than like 19 Chinese cities)
On a personal level I actually think it's sad. For both China as well as the US. They're both so large and vast that just exploring these nation's various geological and cultural differences would take a lifetime. Extensive journals and books have been written about their unique cities and states (zhou) that literally fill libraries.
However, I feel this amount of insularism creates ignorance and prevents people from a better understanding of the global community around them. I would argue that's why they're both the most hated tourists in the world. So it's not a good thing in my opinion.