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When a nation is a superpower, it is able to influence the behavior of weaker states. It will exert its influence for a variety of reasons, but it is inevitable
by corporate_shi11 7y ago
When a nation is a superpower, it is able to influence the behavior of weaker states. It will exert its influence for a variety of reasons, but it is inevitable that with power comes the exertion of influence.
China will use its power to prop up autocratic regimes across the world and export its technology and methods to make such autocracy possible and sustainable.
China represents a threat to global democracy which must be recognized and must be treated as such.
- arkitaip 7y agoI am hoping that the EU can devise a plan to fight China ever-increasing threats to democracy AND re-introduce manufacturing as a strong industry in all of the Union. It's obvious that individual European counties simply cannot withstand China on their own.
- petre 7y agoThe EU is too slow to react, lots of disagreement, lots of debating.
- vezycash 7y agoIt's probably going to supply the tech if Nigeria's social media bill passes - Death penalty for 'Hate Speech' on social media.
- whoevercares 7y agoJust saying, historically Han ethnicity is pretty bad at expansion and exert influence overseas otherwise WWIII would happen many years ago. Of course no one knows if that’ll change as China rises in modern age
- eznoonze 7y agoThey will fail, but not without lots of damage to the world and themselves. All thanks to Xi Jinping's expansionist ambition.
- azinman2 7y agoWhy will they fail? So far they’ve been executing pretty well for the past 20-30 years...
- eznoonze 7y agoPast 20-30 years as you said. Past performance is not a guarantee of future success. They don't have the same officials now as they did for the past few decades. Check out who the current ruler is and its background. This guy is a hardcore dictator who doesn't want to listen to any idea beside his own. And he's only got an elementary education. That's a recipe for failure.
- whoevercares 7y agoI have to agree with you. All leaders before him are pretty well educated for their time being.
- AnimalMuppet 7y agoFrom Wikipedia: > From 1975 to 1979, Xi studied chemical engineering at Beijing's Tsinghua University as a "Worker-Peasant-Soldier student". The engineering majors there spent about 15 percent of their time studying Marxism–Leninism–Mao Zedong thought and 5 percent of their time doing farm work and "learning from the People's Liberation Army". So, university education in chemical engineering, with 20% political content. Still, not "only an elementary education".
- whoevercares 7y agoIt was a “recommendation” based system at the end of cultural revolution and Xi was mostly been assigned to study there without any qualifications. basically the university has stopped accepting students for 10 years at that time. The Chinese version of the wiki has detailed explanation of what “worker peasant solider” student was. Anyway I doubt he was able to learn anything given his education background.
- eznoonze 7y agoNot just propping up autocratic regimes, but they also infiltrate democratic countries by providing funding/support to naive and/or corrupted politicians in the West.
- braythwayt 7y agoWithout agreeing or disagreeing with them, we should accept that people have said exactly the same things about the USA, about the Soviet Union, about Russia, about Britain... And on and on. I am not trying to play “whatabout,” but I do ask: Is there anything different about China’s behaviour as a superpower? Or are we just seeing a shift in which superpowers have world influence? At the moment I write this, the front page of HN has an article about China and facial recognition... But also an article about US schools monitoring student emails. Which seems to me like training a generation of citizens to understand that they live in a prison without walls.
- kiba 7y agoUS schools is about certain school districts, not national policies.
- braythwayt 7y ago“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” —Dr. Martin Luther King, Letter from Birmingham Jail. https://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/documents/Letter_Birmingham_Jail.pdf https://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/documents/Letter_Birmingham_Jail...
- corporate_shi11 7y agoYou miss the point of the comment. Comparing the CCP federal structure to a local school district is a laughably inappropriate comparison.
- corporate_shi11 7y agoI think comparisons like this ignore something fundamental, which is the values that both countries champion. The USA is a democracy and has by and large championed democracy around the world. China is ruled by a 1974 style dictatorship, a country ruled by a single Party not the rule of law. Comparisons between the US and the CCP conveniently ignore this, yet it is what really matters. Law enforcement will always exist in a nation of laws, yet the simple fact that law enforcement exists both in a dictatorship and in a democracy does not lead us to conclude democracy and dictatorship exist on an equal moral footing. The underlying values matter.
- oefrha 7y agoI can think of another superpower that’s been propping up “democratic” regimes across the world, not hypothetically, but for decades. (Apparently dang won’t like this comment, and rightly so, so this will be my last comment on this thread.)
- corporate_shi11 7y agoAmerica has been a champion for real democracies across the world for decades. It has propped up autocracies in the past, but those pale in comparison to its global support for democracy.
- take_a_breath 7y agoAmerica has also disposed of plenty of democratically-elected regimes (Panama, Iran, Chile, Guatemala, Brazil, etc.). I’m not sure who gets to determine if that ”pales in comparison” to its support of other democracies, but it did happen.
- AnimalMuppet 7y agoSure it did, and it's a shame to the US that it happened. But the US did also prop up democratic regimes. Now, in contrast, China and Russia... did they ever help democracy, anywhere?