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why is there always pro-China messaging here and on Reddit? Every day there's another story about how China is eclipsing the West, but wake me up when the CCP c

why is there always pro-China messaging here and on Reddit? Every day there's another story about how China is eclipsing the West, but wake me up when the CCP changes. China might be eating the world but the most obvious thing is the astroturfing.

bronson 1y ago
To eat the world, first you must eat social media.
potsandpans 1y ago
You're so used to the US and western world consent factories that even the suggestion of China doing well in an area has you on alert.
chvid 1y ago
The zeitgeist is changing - public opinion is turning China friendly - Trump probably has a lot more to do with it than China itself.
fernvenue 1y ago
Good one, and I remember that somewhere (maybe Hacker News) I saw an article said that China is spending so much money and people to do these things, build some websites and make articles to change some "views".
DarkNova6 1y ago
Looking at what is going on in the US and how Trump is halfway there creating his own paramilitary force, China looks like a beacon of stability and progress.
panarchy 1y ago
Probably because when I glance at pictures of cities in China I see amazing architecture and urban design that isn't rivaled by anything I see in the US. And when I glance at pictures of cities in the US I see fascist armed goons terrorizing people and crumbling infrastructure
- corimaith 1y ago
  But the urban design in China isn't anything special that other Asian cities have done, if not better and earlier. So why this particular comparison with a single country to you? Tokyo, Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore exceeded Western cities decades ago. Even today, Shanghai or Shezhen only is developed in certain areas, it does not reach the high level of urban development on ALL areas like in Hong Kong or Tokyo. And the mopeds or metro bomb checks aren't endearing either. It feels some people were either living under a rock for the last two decades, or they do have an agenda to push.
  - panarchy 1y ago
    Because China and the US (implied and in lots of other comments on this post) were the topic of discussion? So my comment was framed in the relativity between the two.
    - corimaith 1y ago
      But that's a false dichtomy. The modernity you ascribing to China is just following the general trend for the last 2 decades that was achieved elsewhere. It's a largely misleading to ascribe it to unique characteristics of China here. If one is debating in to inform, should you not point out that greater perspective here? Even more, like OP said, why now specifically with all these articles salivating China. What were you doing back in 2007 or 2012, that you were not making the same comparisons could be made to Tokyo or Hong Kong, that you would well understand years ago. But there clearly isn't such a barrage from back then, either fron Americabs or Japanese or Hong Kongers themselves.
      - panarchy 1y ago
        Is this a moderated debate? And that's not a false dichotomy? If I say which sport is more exhilarating to watch football or basketball? It's not a false dichotomy and it's weird if someone were to butt in with "What about baseball? Why didn't you mention baseball? What about soccer, what about tennis, this isn't a fair discussion!" I wasn't saying and didn't even imply those are the only options they just happen to be the ones we're talking about and it would be absurd to bring in the thousands of other sports to figure out which of the two is more exhilarating to spectate. Tokyo has been considered a high tech utopia for a long time no one is surprised by its modernity (similar with Hong Kong) whereas China over the last decades has been portrayed as being little more than poor starving farmers and slave labor in worn out factories, and that juxtaposition is what makes it an interesting point of contrast. Also I did see a barrage of articles praising Japan in the last few decades. There's literally multiple terms for westerners who are obsessed with Japan. Also if it hasn't been unique to China at all (although I never said it was) why doesn't the country with a similar population and similar location (India) seem to have the same sort of reduction in poverty, economic prosperity, high tech buildings, and extensive modern transportation?
phtrivier 1y ago
There are two options: 1. It's a massive PR campaigns. Things are actually _not_ that great in China, their numbers are completely fake, and it might collapse any time now. But China manages to make people write the contrary. Maybe they _are_ paying for all the Youtubers [1] [2] and journalists [3] who explain that US decisions in trade, science, energy, etc... are a huge gift to China. This is not so impossible: that's basically what the Soviet Union tried to do until the 70s. Lots of people in the 60s were rooting for the USSR, hoping the West would copy them... Maybe the moon landing help deflate that bubble. And somehow, the shit hit the fan early enough, and demonstrably enough, that it all collapsed. It does not have to be a conspiracy - maybe if you manage to publish cute numbers that tell a great story, people will repeat the story for you. And we're so unfamiliar with China in the West, that we would not see through the BS. 2. You see it repeated a lot, because it's real. China is once again the dominant superpower in the world, they're ahead of us in every department and we will soon look like archaic peasants compared to them : basically the rest of the world history. It's just that we witness one of the small bumps where they were not at their best, and we assume it was "normal". The problem is that China is building so much of the world that we rely on, I honestly can't think of good reasons to think 1 is true, and not 2. Maybe Taiwan will be their Afghanistan ? (Sadly, it will only take us a couple years to know...) That being said, I really wonder what's the way "out", if there is any, of dependency on China: * just chill, accept that we'll never build anything ever, and buy chinese stuff ? * wait for demography [4] to become a real problem ? * rebuild a supply chain from the ground-up - curious where you start from. What's the first factory you rebuild ? * assume that it, too, shall pass, and that at some point China will make one of the blunders that authoritarianism allow ? [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EU8zYS43TRg&pp=0gcJCbIJAYcqIYzv https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EU8zYS43TRg&pp=0gcJCbIJAYcqI... [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tNp2vsxEzk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tNp2vsxEzk [3] https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/04/world/asia/trump-science-visa-china.html https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/04/world/asia/trump-science-... [4] https://www.newsweek.com/china-faces-economic-blow-population-crisis-2109716 https://www.newsweek.com/china-faces-economic-blow-populatio...
- phtrivier 1y ago
  I must have triggered the spirits of the algo, because right after commenting I stumbled on this take about how the collapse of China is inevitable, mostly because of demographics [1]. So, "we'll see", I guess ? [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UltVl2Qlf6A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UltVl2Qlf6A

bronson 1y ago

To eat the world, first you must eat social media.

potsandpans 1y ago

You're so used to the US and western world consent factories that even the suggestion of China doing well in an area has you on alert.

chvid 1y ago

The zeitgeist is changing - public opinion is turning China friendly - Trump probably has a lot more to do with it than China itself.

fernvenue 1y ago

Good one, and I remember that somewhere (maybe Hacker News) I saw an article said that China is spending so much money and people to do these things, build some websites and make articles to change some "views".

DarkNova6 1y ago

Looking at what is going on in the US and how Trump is halfway there creating his own paramilitary force, China looks like a beacon of stability and progress.

panarchy 1y ago

Probably because when I glance at pictures of cities in China I see amazing architecture and urban design that isn't rivaled by anything I see in the US. And when I glance at pictures of cities in the US I see fascist armed goons terrorizing people and crumbling infrastructure

corimaith 1y ago
But the urban design in China isn't anything special that other Asian cities have done, if not better and earlier. So why this particular comparison with a single country to you? Tokyo, Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore exceeded Western cities decades ago. Even today, Shanghai or Shezhen only is developed in certain areas, it does not reach the high level of urban development on ALL areas like in Hong Kong or Tokyo. And the mopeds or metro bomb checks aren't endearing either. It feels some people were either living under a rock for the last two decades, or they do have an agenda to push.
- panarchy 1y ago
  Because China and the US (implied and in lots of other comments on this post) were the topic of discussion? So my comment was framed in the relativity between the two.
  - corimaith 1y ago
    But that's a false dichtomy. The modernity you ascribing to China is just following the general trend for the last 2 decades that was achieved elsewhere. It's a largely misleading to ascribe it to unique characteristics of China here. If one is debating in to inform, should you not point out that greater perspective here? Even more, like OP said, why now specifically with all these articles salivating China. What were you doing back in 2007 or 2012, that you were not making the same comparisons could be made to Tokyo or Hong Kong, that you would well understand years ago. But there clearly isn't such a barrage from back then, either fron Americabs or Japanese or Hong Kongers themselves.
    - panarchy 1y ago
      Is this a moderated debate? And that's not a false dichotomy? If I say which sport is more exhilarating to watch football or basketball? It's not a false dichotomy and it's weird if someone were to butt in with "What about baseball? Why didn't you mention baseball? What about soccer, what about tennis, this isn't a fair discussion!" I wasn't saying and didn't even imply those are the only options they just happen to be the ones we're talking about and it would be absurd to bring in the thousands of other sports to figure out which of the two is more exhilarating to spectate. Tokyo has been considered a high tech utopia for a long time no one is surprised by its modernity (similar with Hong Kong) whereas China over the last decades has been portrayed as being little more than poor starving farmers and slave labor in worn out factories, and that juxtaposition is what makes it an interesting point of contrast. Also I did see a barrage of articles praising Japan in the last few decades. There's literally multiple terms for westerners who are obsessed with Japan. Also if it hasn't been unique to China at all (although I never said it was) why doesn't the country with a similar population and similar location (India) seem to have the same sort of reduction in poverty, economic prosperity, high tech buildings, and extensive modern transportation?

phtrivier 1y ago

There are two options: 1. It's a massive PR campaigns. Things are actually _not_ that great in China, their numbers are completely fake, and it might collapse any time now. But China manages to make people write the contrary. Maybe they _are_ paying for all the Youtubers [1] [2] and journalists [3] who explain that US decisions in trade, science, energy, etc... are a huge gift to China. This is not so impossible: that's basically what the Soviet Union tried to do until the 70s. Lots of people in the 60s were rooting for the USSR, hoping the West would copy them... Maybe the moon landing help deflate that bubble. And somehow, the shit hit the fan early enough, and demonstrably enough, that it all collapsed. It does not have to be a conspiracy - maybe if you manage to publish cute numbers that tell a great story, people will repeat the story for you. And we're so unfamiliar with China in the West, that we would not see through the BS. 2. You see it repeated a lot, because it's real. China is once again the dominant superpower in the world, they're ahead of us in every department and we will soon look like archaic peasants compared to them : basically the rest of the world history. It's just that we witness one of the small bumps where they were not at their best, and we assume it was "normal". The problem is that China is building so much of the world that we rely on, I honestly can't think of good reasons to think 1 is true, and not 2. Maybe Taiwan will be their Afghanistan ? (Sadly, it will only take us a couple years to know...) That being said, I really wonder what's the way "out", if there is any, of dependency on China: * just chill, accept that we'll never build anything ever, and buy chinese stuff ? * wait for demography [4] to become a real problem ? * rebuild a supply chain from the ground-up - curious where you start from. What's the first factory you rebuild ? * assume that it, too, shall pass, and that at some point China will make one of the blunders that authoritarianism allow ? [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EU8zYS43TRg&pp=0gcJCbIJAYcqIYzv https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EU8zYS43TRg&pp=0gcJCbIJAYcqI... [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tNp2vsxEzk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tNp2vsxEzk [3] https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/04/world/asia/trump-science-visa-china.html https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/04/world/asia/trump-science-... [4] https://www.newsweek.com/china-faces-economic-blow-population-crisis-2109716 https://www.newsweek.com/china-faces-economic-blow-populatio...

phtrivier 1y ago
I must have triggered the spirits of the algo, because right after commenting I stumbled on this take about how the collapse of China is inevitable, mostly because of demographics [1]. So, "we'll see", I guess ? [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UltVl2Qlf6A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UltVl2Qlf6A