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Western Arrogance and China

rkeng.substack.com

1–10 of 38 posts

Re: Western Arrogance and China

#2
In the eyes of the West, China is supposedly a very repressive state where the people have no freedom. This is easily debunked by visiting China and seeing how the Chinese live.

The claims in this article are, in the words of its author, easily debunked by visiting China and seeing how the Chinese live.

Re: Western Arrogance and China

#3

In the eyes of the West, China is supposedly a very repressive state where the people have no freedom. This is easily debunked by visiting China and seeing how the Chinese live. The claims in this article are, in the words of its author, easily debunked by visiting China and seeing how the Chinese live .

The article is great propaganda, that's for sure. Whoever it is, they seem to cherry pick certain things, ignore other things and keep a few things below the surface, unspoken. It reads like Sino-exceptionalism. I really love their maximum expansion map.

Re: Western Arrogance and China

#4
post #3

In the eyes of the West, China is supposedly a very repressive state where the people have no freedom. This is easily debunked by visiting China and seeing how the Chinese live. The claims in this article are, in the words of its author, easily debunked by visiting China and seeing how the Chinese live .

The article is great propaganda, that's for sure. Whoever it is, they seem to cherry pick certain things, ignore other things and keep a few things below the surface, unspoken. It reads like Sino-exceptionalism. I really love their maximum expansion map.

Ignore what?

Have you been to China?

The author isn't saying China is perfect. He's simply pointing out Western anti-China propaganda.

Re: Western Arrogance and China

#5

In the eyes of the West, China is supposedly a very repressive state where the people have no freedom. This is easily debunked by visiting China and seeing how the Chinese live. The claims in this article are, in the words of its author, easily debunked by visiting China and seeing how the Chinese live .

If China had remained a backward, undeveloped country like it was in the 1970s, the world would pay China no heed. China would get zero attention; it would be completely ignored.

Food for thought.

Re: Western Arrogance and China

#6

In the eyes of the West, China is supposedly a very repressive state where the people have no freedom. This is easily debunked by visiting China and seeing how the Chinese live. The claims in this article are, in the words of its author, easily debunked by visiting China and seeing how the Chinese live .

Just curious, why did you dismiss the Edelman Trust Barometer and other sources cited?

Re: Western Arrogance and China

#7

In the eyes of the West, China is supposedly a very repressive state where the people have no freedom. This is easily debunked by visiting China and seeing how the Chinese live. The claims in this article are, in the words of its author, easily debunked by visiting China and seeing how the Chinese live .

Visiting China and seeing how the Chinese live won't make you think it's a beacon of democracy, but it will also show you that the Western caricature of China is horrendously distorted.

Fundamentally, the question you have to ask yourself is: if China really is the hellhole that's described in Western media, why do most people in China have such a positive view of their country? The facile answer is that Chinese people must be brainwashed, but consider the difficulty of brainwashing 1.4 billion people who experience China every single day, vs. the relative ease of brainwashing (or lightly rinsing the brains of) people who have no direct experience of China.

Re: Western Arrogance and China

#8

In the eyes of the West, China is supposedly a very repressive state where the people have no freedom. This is easily debunked by visiting China and seeing how the Chinese live. The claims in this article are, in the words of its author, easily debunked by visiting China and seeing how the Chinese live .

Visiting China and seeing how the Chinese live won't make you think it's a beacon of democracy, but it will also show you that the Western caricature of China is horrendously distorted. Fundamentally, the question you have to ask yourself is: if China really is the hellhole that's described in Western media, why do most people in China have such a positive view of their country? The facile answer is that Chinese peop…

Exactly! The Chinese do not pretend they have Western liberal democracy, but the democratic system they do have works for them.

Moreover, they've seen how well liberal democracy works for USA, UK, India, Taiwan, Brazil, Hungary, and so on, and they aren't fooled. The question is: why are we?

Re: Western Arrogance and China

#9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Visiting China and seeing how the Chinese live won't make you think it's a beacon of democracy, but it will also show you that the Western caricature of China is horrendously distorted. Fundamentally, the question you have to ask yourself is: if China really is the hellhole that's described in Western media, why do most people in China have such a positive view of their country? The facile answer is that Chinese peop…

Exactly! The Chinese do not pretend they have Western liberal democracy, but the democratic system they do have works for them. Moreover, they've seen how well liberal democracy works for USA, UK, India, Taiwan, Brazil, Hungary, and so on, and they aren't fooled. The question is: why are we?

I wouldn't characterize the Chinese political system as democratic at all, and there are many ways in which it does not work for many people. However, life has gotten way better in China by almost every metric over the last few decades, and Western depictions of China are incredibly distorted / driven by fear and chauvinism.

Re: Western Arrogance and China

#10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly! The Chinese do not pretend they have Western liberal democracy, but the democratic system they do have works for them. Moreover, they've seen how well liberal democracy works for USA, UK, India, Taiwan, Brazil, Hungary, and so on, and they aren't fooled. The question is: why are we?

I wouldn't characterize the Chinese political system as democratic at all, and there are many ways in which it does not work for many people. However, life has gotten way better in China by almost every metric over the last few decades, and Western depictions of China are incredibly distorted / driven by fear and chauvinism.

Whether or not we think it's democratic is irrelevant; the important thing is that the Chinese think it's democratic. China's system doesn't have to work for us, as long as it works for them.

The Chinese believe they enjoy just as much freedom as we do. They are informed by their international travel. Every year, over 100 million Chinese travel the world over. They've seen our freedoms in the US, UK, France, Germany, etc.

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