China’s share of global GDP has increased from 3.6% in 2000 to 17.8% in 2019 and will continue to grow, the CEBR said. It would pass the per capita threshold of $12,536 (£9,215) to become a high-income country by 2023.

absolutely insane

    • weshallovercum [any]
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      4 years ago

      I only look at actions, not at words. China doesnt invade other countries, they dont involve in the internal affairs of other countries, they dont engage in unequal exchange and exploitative trade relations. They are a million times better than the US in this regard. They also have a government that genuinely cares about the people, they implement social programs despite there not being any necessity or pressure applied on the government. Imagine that, in the West it is only the unions and political struggle that generate concessions to the working class. In China the government gives social benefits by themselves. There is a massive fucking difference.

      Honestly, the jury is still out on whether China is actually going to move towards socialism, but based on their actual actions so far, their rise is a net positive to the entire world.

        • weshallovercum [any]
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          4 years ago

          Please give the list. This is a place for constructive discussion, don't take it as a debate. I'm saying this in good faith because a large portion of the left has internalized State Dept. propaganda and it's always useful to offer a different perspective.

            • weshallovercum [any]
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              4 years ago

              Alright, can you explain what China is doing in those countries that makes it imperialism? And can you also define imperialism?

            • JorgeWBush [he/him]
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              4 years ago

              Speaking as a nigerian person,the situation with Afrika is more nuanced than that.

              Countries are seeing more real development in a few decades than they had in an epoch of european occupation.

              Speaking to people on the ground about china, the primary complaint people had was that when building rail they use their own engineers, while the locals are largely relegated to the menial labor.

              It doesn't exactly fill me with joy to see the petrostate taking on more foreign debt for development, but at the very least this way we are a lot more likely to avoid additional "structural readjustment".

              Nigeria in particular seems like an odd hill to die on for "chinese imperialism" given that the country's northern region are currently occupied by US special forces.

            • weshallovercum [any]
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              4 years ago

              Define imperialism? More Tibetans live outside Tibet than in Tibet. When there is completely free flow of capital and labour between two societies, it is by definition not a colony. How is Hong Kong imperialism? Hong Kong was a British colony before they were given back to China. It is the opposite of imperialism. Taiwan?? That is even more inexplicable, Taiwan is a sovereign nation. What exactly is China doing to Taiwan that makes it imperialism?

              • SankaraIsMyDaddy [they/them]
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                4 years ago

                Hong Kong was a British colony before they were given back to China.

                Isn't the wording here, "given back", evidence that Hong Kong never got a chance to decide their own fate? Shouldn't Hong Kong have the right to self-determination, instead of being traded around by more powerful nations?

                Would the same argument apply to Puerto Rico, an island that was traded between imperialist nations but never given an opportunity for self-determination?

                • weshallovercum [any]
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                  4 years ago

                  Can you define imperialism? Taiwan also considers themselves the true rulers of China. Are they imperialists too? Are both imperialist at the same time?

            • itsPina [he/him, she/her]
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              4 years ago

              IDK if you like Parenti but I found this article pretty eye opening: http://www.michaelparenti.org/Tibet.html

                • itsPina [he/him, she/her]
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                  4 years ago

                  in short: tibet was a feudal fuckhole with actual mass slavery and the lamas literally just tortured people and kept slaves since they were in charge. All that til China came and 'annexed' them. Tibets literally a chunk of China so its kinda understandable that an army rolls in when there are tens of thousands of slaves being tortured and women being treated worse than animals. Imagine if Rhode Island tried pulling that shit.

                    • itsPina [he/him, she/her]
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                      4 years ago

                      There are dozens of sources at the bottom if you'd like to critique them. If you find any iffy stuff feel free to post. I'd love to be proven wrong because the last thing I wanna do is stan an evil country and look like a dumbass.

                        • itsPina [he/him, she/her]
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                          4 years ago

                          It's whatevs. nothing we can really do about it anyways so we will just see who is right in the end. I for one am a big fan of Noam Chomsky and he's a big proponent of this thing called 'lesser evilism' and since I see China as less evil I have to give them my undying support until either america or China comes out on top.

                          Mostly joking.

    • CEO_of_TrainGang [he/him]
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      4 years ago

      Thinking that China is a net good for the world isn’t the same as thinking China is a perfect socialist utopia, and your attempt to conflate those two is insanely disingenuous

      When Western governments/companies do business in Africa, they do so knowing that they have the IMF and the World Bank behind them to pressure those countries into accepting their terms. China literally just doesn’t have that leverage, they couldn’t be “imperialist” even if they wanted to