Take the perspective of your average Chinese household. You have a century and a half of absolutely horrific events one after the other. The nation itself is pa

Take the perspective of your average Chinese household. You have a century and a half of absolutely horrific events one after the other. The nation itself is parceled, invaded, and humiliated in various ways. Then after generations of poverty and misery the living standards don't just rise, but skyrocket upwards to the point where someone born after 1980 lives in a different world. Today, there are multiple opportunities to have a better life even for people in the poorest regions, where there previously was nothing. It is quite literally the single largest increase in living standards in history. If a person from that Chinese household told you that China is deeply flawed and doesn't always do the right thing, but that there are ideals worth spreading, what would you say to them? Why is authoritarianism the defining trait of that civ, but somehow the centuries of Western colonization and subjugation aren't a defining trait of Western values? If the majority of the activity, funding and development of a military is to intervene in order to maintain economic and geopolitical interests, isn't that a better way to define it than vague abstract values like a soldier's code or "becoming conduct"? Does it matter that soldiers have a nice story to tell themselves when the end aggregate result of their participation is much grittier? More broadly, aren't positive values the result of economic and political strength? Living standards are dropping and inequality is rising in the US, and the result was a semi-authoritarian and largely unqualified cabinet. So are Western values actually part of the Western character or a consequence of successful empire building and good economic conditions?