I've been seeing a huge amount of anti-Chinese sentiment online, from obvious places like reddit, to even misinformed friends on social media falling victim to viral posts filled with misinformation.

What are we to make of this? Is this the slow march to war, by portraying them as pure evil, à la the fake story of Iraqi soldiers killing Kuwaiti babies to help get the public on board with our military response? It seems disadvantageous for the US and their allies to fight China, as we are incredibly reliant upon them economically and don't stand to gain much from the conflict.

Are these the irrational decisions of a dying empire? Or is there something else at play?

    • invalidusernamelol [he/him]
      5·
      4 years ago

      It doesn't matter what they do. If America decides they want to do imperialism and economic/cold war against them they'll find a reason. China's military expansion into the sea is probably the only thing keeping western fleets from putting ships directly off their shores.

      The fishing thing sucks and needs to be fixed, bit of buying compared to imperialist aggression. China is doing a pretty good job of trying to shift to a more sustainable economy.

        • invalidusernamelol [he/him]
          4·
          4 years ago

          Ideally there should be a lot more cooperation between China and the other nations that fish in the South China Sea yes, but I'm saying those bases are a good defense against American aggression (which China has seen coming for a long time now). This is actually a topic I'm not very well versed in so I don't want to over extend myself. I'm open to hearing your opinion on it. Is China doing anything agressive against other nations in the south China Sea besides overfishing and building those bases?

            • invalidusernamelol [he/him]
              2·
              4 years ago

              Aren't they like creating islands in the sea? What's the deal with that? Are they also occupying islands that were previously occupied?

                • invalidusernamelol [he/him]
                  ·
                  4 years ago

                  By forgiving loans? They're offering an alternative to the IMF. I don't think that's quite the same as western imperialism, especially when they aren't literally colonizing the area.

    • ComradeNagual [none/use name]
      3·
      4 years ago

      Nah, its made war harder by giving China an extra line of defense with airbases and missiles.