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[flagged]

yongjik 2y ago
In 2023, China's export to Canada was 45.1 billion dollars. China's export to the US was 501 billion dollars. So why is the US propping up China's authoritarian dictatorship? Is this "Only the US gets to prop up dictators in the world, Canada should just follow orders!" kind of deal?
- aaomidi 2y ago
  Also, out of all the countries out there the devastation the US has caused in the global south has no comparison.
  - AlecSchueler 2y ago
    The UK, Portugal and Spain are surely up there.
    - aaomidi 2y ago
      Yep!
Marsymars 2y ago
Well out of Trump, Biden, Harris and Xi Jinping, only one is actively and explicitly hostile towards Canada, and it’s not Winnie-the-Pooh-man. If you want allies in supporting democracy and human rights, the obvious approach is to not attack said allies.
- bluefirebrand 2y ago
  Xi Jinping is a dictator. His very existence is hostile to all democracy in all countries everywhere This may be the worse regime America has ever had but let's not pretend it's as bad as regimes in countries that have actual active concentration camps right now
  - Marsymars 2y ago
    > Xi Jinping is a dictator. His very existence is hostile to all democracy in all countries everywhere Yes, that's simultaneously true with what I posted. It's a shame Trump is driving people into the arms of dictators.
  - blooalien 2y ago
    [flagged]
  - awnird 2y ago
    USA has actual active concentration camps right now.
  - seanmcdirmid 2y ago
    > Xi Jinping is a dictator. His very existence is hostile to all democracy in all countries everywhere This is true, but three difference (1) Xi has proven himself to not be stupid and (2) he isn't an autocrat pretending to be pro-democracy, and (3) he isn't in the thrall of a hostile foreign power. China is exactly what it appears to be, which is much safer than whatever mess America is right now.
    - bluefirebrand 2y ago
      > he isn't in the thrall of a hostile foreign power. He is a hostile foreign power
      - seanmcdirmid 2y ago
        He is an obvious hostile foreign power, no one doubts that Xi Jinping is beholden to Xi Jinping, he doesn't have a secret relationship with Putin or Kim Jong Un.
  - rsynnott 2y ago
    The hard fact is that China is less _dangerous_ to Canada than the US’s current posturing makes it appear to be. The US has squandered soft power built up over the course of a century or so in a couple of months at this point. China (and the EU, and probably India, though who knows with Modi) will absolutely attempt to fill the gap; how could they not?
yatopifo 2y ago
As a Canadian, I prefer China to the US simply because China isn’t threatening to annex us. I hope we will strike a deal with China for military containment of our enemy, the US.
- bluefirebrand 2y ago
  As a Canadian also I want you to know that you absolutely do not speak for all of us, and I strongly hope that you don't represent anything remotely like a majority here Canada-US relationships may be strained right now but the USA is not our enemy, and neither are Americans
  - 3vidence 2y ago
    The US is 100% the biggest existential threat to Canada purely based on Geography and adminstration. The American people really need to do something about their current adminstration if they want to maintain a positive relationship with Canada
  - uhhhhhhh 2y ago
    I'm going to walk the middle ground here as another Canadian. The US has been our 'closest friend and ally' for 70+, hell nearly 100 years now. We've sought economic and military integration, to our benefits certainly, but also to our detriment. It has gone too far, and all it takes is a bully being elected to slap on unjustified tariffs and destabilize the relationship with the goal to squeeze more out of allies rather than negotiating a fair deal for all. Hell he's doing it a second time, and now with the more nefarious undertones of political annexation which the vast majority of Canadians do not want. Our goal moving forward should be to continue being polite and friendly as we are to most other counties, yet also to divorce our military and economy from American control at every step. Does that mean in some cases trading more with China? Yes, but we should focus on commonwealth and European integration with like minded countries that value democracy and their citizens.
    - bluefirebrand 2y ago
      > The US has been our 'closest friend and ally' for 70+, hell nearly 100 years now Yes, which is why it's absolutely idiotic to start calling them our enemies after a couple of months of President Trump We will weather this rocky part of our friendship with America and come through it later
toomuchtodo 2y ago
[flagged]
- blackeyeblitzar 2y ago
  This isn’t a serious comparison. China has literally killed tens of millions. All of America’s alleged war crimes would not come anywhere close, not even within an order of magnitude. That’s leaving aside that the US and its technological innovation - which has mostly been shared with the rest of the world - has saved a lot more lives.
  - awnird 2y ago
    USA is threatening to attack Canada. China isn’t. Any other comparison of historic positions seems pretty pointless compared to the actual reality of 2025. Reflect on how badly you have to have screwed up to make Canadians feel this way. They are looking at a brutal dictatorship and assessing it as a better option than the USA.
    - bluefirebrand 2y ago
      > USA is threatening to attack Canada I don't think this is a credible threat at all Maybe I'm overly optimistic, but I imagine an actual order to attack Canada would not go over very well with the American military, or large parts of the American population I'm not remotely worried about America invading my country and I don't think my government should be behaving as if that is likely to happen
      - Terr_ 2y ago
        > I don't think this is a credible threat at all While I agree that specific scenario is unlikely, the antagonism itself is a threat. To illustrate: Imagine a person promises to climb through your window and kill you in your sleep, and you know they're a coward and that they physically can't scale 20 floors up the exterior of the apartment-building. While that specific scenario isn't credible, you still need to be on-guard, since they could easily settle for finding your parked car and smashing all of the windows with a brick.
_aavaa_ 2y ago
China may be an issue and I am not downplaying that. But: we live in one planet, and the tarrifs on Chinese EVs is absolutely slowing down adoption for the sake of propping up legacy automakers who couldn’t be bothered to be serious about EVs. Canada has no domestic car manufacturers. It has branch plants from several companies, but that’s all they are, branch plants. All the tarrifs do is protect the interests of other countries, one of which is getting increasingly hostile to it’s northern neighbor.

[flagged]

In 2023, China's export to Canada was 45.1 billion dollars. China's export to the US was 501 billion dollars. So why is the US propping up China's authoritarian dictatorship? Is this "Only the US gets to prop up dictators in the world, Canada should just follow orders!" kind of deal?

aaomidi 2y ago
Also, out of all the countries out there the devastation the US has caused in the global south has no comparison.
- AlecSchueler 2y ago
  The UK, Portugal and Spain are surely up there.
  - aaomidi 2y ago
    Yep!

Marsymars 2y ago

Well out of Trump, Biden, Harris and Xi Jinping, only one is actively and explicitly hostile towards Canada, and it’s not Winnie-the-Pooh-man. If you want allies in supporting democracy and human rights, the obvious approach is to not attack said allies.

bluefirebrand 2y ago
Xi Jinping is a dictator. His very existence is hostile to all democracy in all countries everywhere This may be the worse regime America has ever had but let's not pretend it's as bad as regimes in countries that have actual active concentration camps right now
- Marsymars 2y ago
  > Xi Jinping is a dictator. His very existence is hostile to all democracy in all countries everywhere Yes, that's simultaneously true with what I posted. It's a shame Trump is driving people into the arms of dictators.
- blooalien 2y ago
  [flagged]
- awnird 2y ago
  USA has actual active concentration camps right now.
- seanmcdirmid 2y ago
  > Xi Jinping is a dictator. His very existence is hostile to all democracy in all countries everywhere This is true, but three difference (1) Xi has proven himself to not be stupid and (2) he isn't an autocrat pretending to be pro-democracy, and (3) he isn't in the thrall of a hostile foreign power. China is exactly what it appears to be, which is much safer than whatever mess America is right now.
  - bluefirebrand 2y ago
    > he isn't in the thrall of a hostile foreign power. He is a hostile foreign power
    - seanmcdirmid 2y ago
      He is an obvious hostile foreign power, no one doubts that Xi Jinping is beholden to Xi Jinping, he doesn't have a secret relationship with Putin or Kim Jong Un.
- rsynnott 2y ago
  The hard fact is that China is less _dangerous_ to Canada than the US’s current posturing makes it appear to be. The US has squandered soft power built up over the course of a century or so in a couple of months at this point. China (and the EU, and probably India, though who knows with Modi) will absolutely attempt to fill the gap; how could they not?

yatopifo 2y ago

As a Canadian, I prefer China to the US simply because China isn’t threatening to annex us. I hope we will strike a deal with China for military containment of our enemy, the US.

bluefirebrand 2y ago
As a Canadian also I want you to know that you absolutely do not speak for all of us, and I strongly hope that you don't represent anything remotely like a majority here Canada-US relationships may be strained right now but the USA is not our enemy, and neither are Americans
- 3vidence 2y ago
  The US is 100% the biggest existential threat to Canada purely based on Geography and adminstration. The American people really need to do something about their current adminstration if they want to maintain a positive relationship with Canada
- uhhhhhhh 2y ago
  I'm going to walk the middle ground here as another Canadian. The US has been our 'closest friend and ally' for 70+, hell nearly 100 years now. We've sought economic and military integration, to our benefits certainly, but also to our detriment. It has gone too far, and all it takes is a bully being elected to slap on unjustified tariffs and destabilize the relationship with the goal to squeeze more out of allies rather than negotiating a fair deal for all. Hell he's doing it a second time, and now with the more nefarious undertones of political annexation which the vast majority of Canadians do not want. Our goal moving forward should be to continue being polite and friendly as we are to most other counties, yet also to divorce our military and economy from American control at every step. Does that mean in some cases trading more with China? Yes, but we should focus on commonwealth and European integration with like minded countries that value democracy and their citizens.
  - bluefirebrand 2y ago
    > The US has been our 'closest friend and ally' for 70+, hell nearly 100 years now Yes, which is why it's absolutely idiotic to start calling them our enemies after a couple of months of President Trump We will weather this rocky part of our friendship with America and come through it later

toomuchtodo 2y ago

[flagged]

blackeyeblitzar 2y ago
This isn’t a serious comparison. China has literally killed tens of millions. All of America’s alleged war crimes would not come anywhere close, not even within an order of magnitude. That’s leaving aside that the US and its technological innovation - which has mostly been shared with the rest of the world - has saved a lot more lives.
- awnird 2y ago
  USA is threatening to attack Canada. China isn’t. Any other comparison of historic positions seems pretty pointless compared to the actual reality of 2025. Reflect on how badly you have to have screwed up to make Canadians feel this way. They are looking at a brutal dictatorship and assessing it as a better option than the USA.
  - bluefirebrand 2y ago
    > USA is threatening to attack Canada I don't think this is a credible threat at all Maybe I'm overly optimistic, but I imagine an actual order to attack Canada would not go over very well with the American military, or large parts of the American population I'm not remotely worried about America invading my country and I don't think my government should be behaving as if that is likely to happen
    - Terr_ 2y ago
      > I don't think this is a credible threat at all While I agree that specific scenario is unlikely, the antagonism itself is a threat. To illustrate: Imagine a person promises to climb through your window and kill you in your sleep, and you know they're a coward and that they physically can't scale 20 floors up the exterior of the apartment-building. While that specific scenario isn't credible, you still need to be on-guard, since they could easily settle for finding your parked car and smashing all of the windows with a brick.

_aavaa_ 2y ago

China may be an issue and I am not downplaying that. But: we live in one planet, and the tarrifs on Chinese EVs is absolutely slowing down adoption for the sake of propping up legacy automakers who couldn’t be bothered to be serious about EVs. Canada has no domestic car manufacturers. It has branch plants from several companies, but that’s all they are, branch plants. All the tarrifs do is protect the interests of other countries, one of which is getting increasingly hostile to it’s northern neighbor.