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China is spending billions on soft power

economist.com

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Re: China is spending billions on soft power

#51

Post by imjustsaying »

kitschshrine wrote: post #26

so China is - lead by a billionnaire dictator and son of veteran communist party member, who has shown to purge his enemies, jail innocents/reporters without trial, disappear others. He oppresses the will of hong kongers to self govern, and acts like a crybaby whenever Taiwan, a self-governing democracy, does anything political - controlled by a "congress" of billionnaires, who work together to exploit workers for pe…

People who haven't lived in China have a hard time wrapping their heads around the grave implications of this.

There is no free press in China so you can only see a small fraction of the life-destroying problems that are pervasive throughout the country, let alone shine enough light on them to solve them.

An extended PR campaign such as this is only going to exacerbate the distortion of reality.

Re: China is spending billions on soft power

#52

Post by imjustsaying »

yomly wrote: post #41
kitschshrine wrote: post #26

so China is - lead by a billionnaire dictator and son of veteran communist party member, who has shown to purge his enemies, jail innocents/reporters without trial, disappear others. He oppresses the will of hong kongers to self govern, and acts like a crybaby whenever Taiwan, a self-governing democracy, does anything political - controlled by a "congress" of billionnaires, who work together to exploit workers for pe…

Let's take a look at America: They spy on you, regardless of if you live in the country or not, committing global espionage[0][1] They do not observe human rights when imprisoning you [2][3] They are happy to bomb civilians using automated robots in the name of freedom and enlisting you to their brand of freedom[4] They are happy to arm terrorists then assassinate them when they are no longer relevant to their cause[…

In China, you would be sent to the gulags or disappeared for making this kind of post.

Re: China is spending billions on soft power

#53

Post by yomly »

jldugger wrote: post #45
yomly wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's take a look at America: They spy on you, regardless of if you live in the country or not, committing global espionage[0][1] They do not observe human rights when imprisoning you [2][3] They are happy to bomb civilians using automated robots in the name of freedom and enlisting you to their brand of freedom[4] They are happy to arm terrorists then assassinate them when they are no longer relevant to their cause[…

We can (and should) complain about this, but the sins of another do not dismiss your own.

Yeah - as I said, I'm not saying China is without sin. I just find China bashing to really be nothing more than an exercise of "pulling the ladder up". Europe was perfectly happy colonising the world in its heyday, as was America in the past. Now that they've entrenched their position in the world, suddenly it's not ok when other people are trying to climb the ladder.

Re: China is spending billions on soft power

#54

Post by mazerackham »

tehabe wrote: post #28

It would be cheaper to open up the country, introduce a democratic system and actual human rights, and abolish the death penality. Make peace with Tibet, agree with Taiwan on a good neighborhood. Support a democratic change also in North Korea. These would actually make China a country I could support, but currently: no, thank you.

this is such a prototypical example of utter western bullshit. Likely near zero understanding of politics, just grew up with the words "democracy" being shoved into your ears repeatedly.

Do you really believe that China's 1.3 billion people would be better off if the country just switched itself to American styled "democracy"? Look at who our democracy just elected.

Re: China is spending billions on soft power

#55

Post by kitschshrine »

yomly wrote: post #53
jldugger wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We can (and should) complain about this, but the sins of another do not dismiss your own.

Yeah - as I said, I'm not saying China is without sin. I just find China bashing to really be nothing more than an exercise of "pulling the ladder up". Europe was perfectly happy colonising the world in its heyday, as was America in the past. Now that they've entrenched their position in the world, suddenly it's not ok when other people are trying to climb the ladder.

uh, this is 2017, not 1930s. let's judge China by today's standard. You can't absolve a sin from someone today because someone else "used to do it" 100 years ago

Re: China is spending billions on soft power

#56

Post by Axsuul »

ajross wrote: post #7

It's a digression (because honestly the fact that China markets itself is not hugely notable, nor "bad" or "good" no matter how effective or ineffective it might be), but: Toward the bottom of this article is a favorability chart of China in different nations. And there is a huge crater (like 37% to 5%) in Chinese support among the Japanese between 2011-2013. Other nationalities see a little blip, but nothing like th…

The resentment is quite reciprocal as well. Almost every Chinese mainlander shows resentment toward Japan (and Korea) to the extent that they don't even buy their products.

Re: China is spending billions on soft power

#57

Post by imjustsaying »

jldugger wrote: post #45
yomly wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's take a look at America: They spy on you, regardless of if you live in the country or not, committing global espionage[0][1] They do not observe human rights when imprisoning you [2][3] They are happy to bomb civilians using automated robots in the name of freedom and enlisting you to their brand of freedom[4] They are happy to arm terrorists then assassinate them when they are no longer relevant to their cause[…

We can (and should) complain about this, but the sins of another do not dismiss your own.

>They ...do not have free healthcare [no citations necessary]

When I lived and worked in China, for a government entity, the insurance didn't cover anything I ever needed it for and I had to pay out of pocket 100% of the time for all costs. The private healthcare industry is exploding in China right now because the public healthcare system is inadequate.

There is no such thing as free healthcare. Even if you install single payer and ration health supplies to the extent more people die on waiting lists like in Canada, the government will still be paying for the little care that remains through your own taxes or debt obligations.

More enlightenment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peVLkW7uirI

Re: China is spending billions on soft power

#58

Post by kristianc »

kitschshrine wrote: post #26

so China is - lead by a billionnaire dictator and son of veteran communist party member, who has shown to purge his enemies, jail innocents/reporters without trial, disappear others. He oppresses the will of hong kongers to self govern, and acts like a crybaby whenever Taiwan, a self-governing democracy, does anything political - controlled by a "congress" of billionnaires, who work together to exploit workers for pe…

As it stands, this doesn't sound dissimilar to America (which also spends billions on making the world love it in the name of soft power)

Re: China is spending billions on soft power

#59

Post by foldr »

nneonneo wrote: post #48
foldr wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>every syllable is a word in its own right, and multisyllable words are compound words[ This is an artifact of the writing system. Mandarin Chinese has multisyllabic words in exactly the same way that e.g. English does. http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=3330

Despite the article's enthusiasm for polysyllabic characters, these remain exceedingly rare in day-to-day use, whereas polysyllabic words in English are basically unavoidable. There's no equivalence here. The writing system remains very strongly monosyllabic, in that one character corresponds to one syllable >99% of the time.

The point I was referring to is that the words are not all monosyllabic. The existence or nonexistence of multisyllabic characters is irrelevant. Character != word.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/595185?seq=1

Re: China is spending billions on soft power

#60

Post by [deleted] »

yomly wrote: post #41
kitschshrine wrote: post #26

so China is - lead by a billionnaire dictator and son of veteran communist party member, who has shown to purge his enemies, jail innocents/reporters without trial, disappear others. He oppresses the will of hong kongers to self govern, and acts like a crybaby whenever Taiwan, a self-governing democracy, does anything political - controlled by a "congress" of billionnaires, who work together to exploit workers for pe…

Let's take a look at America: They spy on you, regardless of if you live in the country or not, committing global espionage[0][1] They do not observe human rights when imprisoning you [2][3] They are happy to bomb civilians using automated robots in the name of freedom and enlisting you to their brand of freedom[4] They are happy to arm terrorists then assassinate them when they are no longer relevant to their cause[…

[deleted]
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