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Not suggesting at all that the USA is some benign superpower, but Russia is run by a criminal gang and China by a despot and a corrupt communist party. Note th

by apercu 5y ago

Not suggesting at all that the USA is some benign superpower, but Russia is run by a criminal gang and China by a despot and a corrupt communist party. Note that I am a US citizen than expatriated after the second gulf war. So I am not a fan if the US gvmt, but if you think for a second that the Chinese and Russian governments AREN'T doing the things they are accused you are naive.

hungryhobo 5y ago
just curious, have you visited china before? or seen first hand what's it actually like? you seem to have a very strong opinion, yet i'm not sure if they are based on reality or not.
- elefanten 5y ago
  This is a weird comment. Gp wasn't talking about day to day life or what cities look like or anything like that. Going to China wouldn't teach you much about its government structure and governance. It's not like you can just walk in and observe party cells interacting with company leadership. You don't need to go to China to know what the government structure is, what foreign policy it conducts and what kind of economic behavior is clearly not just condoned (small scale hacking, data harvesting) but encouraged (fishing other nations' territorial waters) or even demanded (foreign business ownership requirements, IP transfer requirements) by the party. You don't need to go to China to hear reports from dissidents experiencing internment, forced labor and cultural genocide. Or to see all the broken international agreements and sovereign promises, eg the early destruction of a free Hong Kong. Or to see the territorial expansionism in salami slicing illegal maritime boundaries. Or... most importantly, to understand that a despotic cartel that doesn't believe in individual human rights is a terrible form of human organization that has terrible externalities for the whole species and planet.
- apercu 5y ago
  I would be extremely reluctant to visit China or Russia at this point in my life. I felt differently in my 20's. And I am modestly well-travelled.

by apercu 5y ago

hungryhobo 5y ago

just curious, have you visited china before? or seen first hand what's it actually like? you seem to have a very strong opinion, yet i'm not sure if they are based on reality or not.

elefanten 5y ago
This is a weird comment. Gp wasn't talking about day to day life or what cities look like or anything like that. Going to China wouldn't teach you much about its government structure and governance. It's not like you can just walk in and observe party cells interacting with company leadership. You don't need to go to China to know what the government structure is, what foreign policy it conducts and what kind of economic behavior is clearly not just condoned (small scale hacking, data harvesting) but encouraged (fishing other nations' territorial waters) or even demanded (foreign business ownership requirements, IP transfer requirements) by the party. You don't need to go to China to hear reports from dissidents experiencing internment, forced labor and cultural genocide. Or to see all the broken international agreements and sovereign promises, eg the early destruction of a free Hong Kong. Or to see the territorial expansionism in salami slicing illegal maritime boundaries. Or... most importantly, to understand that a despotic cartel that doesn't believe in individual human rights is a terrible form of human organization that has terrible externalities for the whole species and planet.
apercu 5y ago
I would be extremely reluctant to visit China or Russia at this point in my life. I felt differently in my 20's. And I am modestly well-travelled.