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I wouldn't draw the parallels between China today and Germany in the 1930s, but I do see similarities to Germany before WWI. Like China Germany just went throu
by ginko 5y ago
I wouldn't draw the parallels between China today and Germany in the 1930s, but I do see similarities to Germany before WWI.
Like China Germany just went through a break-neck pace industrialization to the point where it became a major competitor to the other great powers. It even had its own 'century of humiliation' in the 17th century starting with the Thirty Years' War. There was a lot of nationalism and ressentiment in Germany towards France and UK at the time and I do feel similar things are going on in China today.
- platinumrad 5y agoThis is a much more reasonable comparison, but I think the big difference is that the mad imperial dash already happened. (Also, nuclear weapons, but let's leave that aside for now.) Some like to call initiatives like Belt and Road "soft colonialism" but doing so completely undersells the massive brutality and enormous wealth extraction of what these people would presumably call "hard colonialism." In other words, I don't think there's enough to fight over for major powers to go to war.
- starfallg 5y agoEconomically, yes, there are parallels to pre-WWI Germany, but politically (in the Xi era) the zeitgeist is more similar to pre-WWII Germany.