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China for all of their 5000 years of existence as a civilization, has never invaded a distant country. They have never brought wars, death, destruction, slaver
by blackrock 6y ago
China for all of their 5000 years of existence as a civilization, has never invaded a distant country. They have never brought wars, death, destruction, slavery, genocide, and concentration camps to those distant lands.
Yes, they expanded along their periphery, which is how they got to their size today.
But even when they had boats, they visited as far away as Africa, and traded with them, instead of enslaving them.
However, in contrast, let’s list all the countries that have enslaved foreign lands.
Britain, France, Spain, Portugal, Germany, United States, Netherlands, Australia. Yes, you guessed it. All these are European countries that have brought an untold number of deaths and destruction to the lands that they visited.
But of course, you are free to turn a blind eye to all their injustices that they have done in the past.
- refurb 6y agoChina for all of their 5000 years of existence as a civilization, has never invaded a distant country. I like how you inserted "distant" in there as if it matters. Even in just recent history, China has: - Invaded Vietnam, purely for political reasons as they were stymieing China's aspirations in SE Asia, Cambodia in particular - They provided military support to North Vietnam as a way to increase their sphere of influence and offset the USSR in SE Asia - They are currently expropriating land and sea for economic purposes that although justified in their own public statements, I'm not sure even they believe
- throwaway0a5e 6y ago>I like how you inserted "distant" in there as if it matters. He/she likely needed to include that as a way to ignore the Tibetan elephant in the room.
- jcranmer 6y agoIf you're going to count the United States as having "enslaved foreign lands", you'll have to include the Chinese domination of Korea, Mongolia, Manchuria, Tibet, and the Tarim Basin at various points in history, since those are ethnically non-Chinese areas that were ruled by China at different points in history. China also established a pretty extensive tributary system in the past, requiring a variety of local states to pay tribute every few years. This is really venturing far from my knowledge of history, but I believe this system would have included much of modern central Asia (the -stans), and all of East and Southeast Asia, through much of the Indonesian islands.
- blackrock 6y agoYou made a mistake. Mongolia invaded China. And they succeeded, back in the 1200s. Then the Manchurians invaded China, and they also succeeded, back in the 1600s. The key distinction here, is that the Mongolians and the Manchurians invaded China, and succeeded, only at their own peril, where they essentially subsumed themselves and their culture into the mainstream Chinese culture.
- komali2 6y agoThis is a strange thing to say. Are you implying for example that every German must bear the sins of Hitler? An offshoot of Chinese governance exists as quite possibly one of the most egalitarian democracies on earth right now in Taiwan, how can you paint such a wide brush of entire nations as if you're describing single individuals?
- vharuck 6y ago>has never invaded a distant country Honest question for those in the know: at what point in history did non-adjacent invasions become feasible and beneficial? I'd imagine if a country ever had a large army and a desire for more land, they would choose neighbors just because of how much simpler it'd be to fight and rule after conquering.