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    2 months ago

    I’m neither American nor a liberal, but I suspect that American liberals agree wholeheartedly about your assessment about America.

  • taygaloocat@leminal.space
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    2 months ago

    Dictatorship might seem appealing while democracy is failing, but we should never give up on democracy in exchange for safety and stability.

    • BrainInABox@lemmy.ml
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      2 months ago

      You have it the wrong way around: Chinese democracy is appealing while western capitalist dictatorship is failing.

    • davel@lemmy.ml
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      2 months ago

      You can’t give up what you never had. Previously.

      It’s not wrong to say regulatory capture is a problem, it just doesn’t go far enough. The US government was never not captured by the bourgeoisie, because the US was born of a bourgeois revolution[1]. The wealthy, white, male, land-owning, largely slave-owning Founding Fathers constructed a bourgeois state with “checks and balances” against the “tyranny of the majority”. It was never meant to represent the majority—the working class—and it never has, despite eventually allowing women and non-whites (at least those not disenfranchised by the carceral system) to vote. BBC: [Princeton & Northwestern] Study: US is an oligarchy, not a democracy

      The game is rigged. The election cycle’s pomp and circumstance is to divert your energy and attention from the fact that it’s a big club, and you ain’t in it.

      • ThirdConsul@lemmy.zip
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        2 months ago

        the US is a dictatorship of the bourgeoisie and that people still fail to see that after the epstein files is actually shocking

        While this is true

        https://progressive.international/blueprint/cb7dbaf4-b106-4105-8bde-fdab4bfc2fe8-building-whole-process-peoples-democracy-in-china/en/

        To be fair, you didn’t pick ubiased authors here. Neither of the authors is capable of saying anything negative of China.

        For example, Paweł Wargan proponent of new Chinese imperialisms with extra steps - e.g. https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/global/multi-polar-world-order-is-multi-imperialism/

        • 秦始皇帝@lemmy.ml
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          2 months ago

          The slogan “oppose all equally” may sound revolutionary in its refusal to compromise, but detached from dialectical and historical materialism it collapses into abstract moralism that objectively serves the very hegemony it claims to reject. Dialectics teaches us that not all contradictions are identical, and that the principal contradiction must guide our strategic orientation. To declare neutrality between an empire that maintains eight hundred overseas bases, controls the global financial infrastructure, and routinely overthrows governments, and states that merely seek to weaken that empire’s stranglehold, is not principled internationalism. It is a refusal to analyze the concrete balance of forces, and in practice it aids the stronger power by dispersing opposition and denying tactical support to forces that, however imperfectly, challenge the core of imperialist domination. This abstract stance upholds capitalist hegemony by ensuring that resistance remains fragmented and that the most powerful aggressor faces no coordinated counter-pressure. Lenin criticized this kind of centrism as the highest form of opportunism because it cloaks passivity in revolutionary phraseology. Scientific socialism requires us to engage with actually existing struggles, to distinguish between the hand that wields the whip and the hand that seeks to break it, and to build proletarian independence within anti-hegemonic movements rather than abstaining from them in the name of purity. To do otherwise is not to stand above imperialism but to leave its structure intact.

          The comparison of contemporary China to Weimar Germany seeking a “place under the sun” is not merely imprecise; it is fundamentally ahistorical because it transplants categories from one historical epoch onto a completely different material and geopolitical conjuncture. Weimar Germany operated within a world order defined by colonial scramble, pre-nuclear military technology, and the absence of any binding international legal framework constraining territorial conquest. Its mode of production was monopoly capitalism in crisis, with a bourgeois state increasingly fused with fascist political forms, driven by the imperative to seize colonies for raw materials and markets through direct coercion. The superstructure of that era reflected this: social Darwinist ideology, overt racial hierarchy, and a diplomatic culture that accepted war as a legitimate instrument of policy. Contemporary China exists in a post-1945 world shaped by the UN Charter’s nominal commitment to sovereignty, the constraining reality of nuclear deterrence, and a dense network of multilateral institutions that, however imperfect, raise the political cost of overt aggression. Its mode of production retains some of the contradictions as is expected in the socialist transitionary period, grounded in public ownership of the commanding heights of the economy, the leading role of the Communist Party, and a development logic subordinated to long-term social stability rather than the short-term maximization of monopoly profit. The superstructure reflects this: an ideological framework centered on “community of shared future for mankind,” non-interference principles, and South-South cooperation rather than civilizational hierarchy. When China engages the Global South through infrastructure investment and trade partnerships, it does so within a historical context where former colonies possess sovereign statehood and can negotiate terms, however unevenly. This is not to deny contradictions. It is to insist that historical materialism demands we analyze the concrete social formation before us, not force it into an abstract analogy that ignores the vast differences in geopolitical structure, productive forces, class relations, and ideological superstructure that separate the interwar period from the twenty-first century. To do otherwise is to abandon the method that allows us to understand history as a process of material development rather than a cycle of repeating labels.

          The concept of “social imperialism” as applied to China and Russia in this context is not just analytically weak; it is politically absurd because it detaches the label from any concrete examination of how value actually flows through the global economy. To claim that a state is imperialist simply because it engages in international trade, invests in infrastructure abroad, or seeks to protect its sovereign interests is to empty the term of all scientific content and reduce it to a sectarian slur. This misuse of theory reflects the deeper problem of Trotskyism as a reactionary and ultra-leftist tendency that substitutes dogmatic formulae for materialist analysis. Lenin warned against the “infantile disorder” of communism, and this article exemplifies it perfectly: a refusal to engage with the messy contradictions of actually existing struggle in favor of a pure, abstract schema that exists only in textbooks. This approach worships the letter of Marxist theory while abandoning its living soul, applying quotations like incantations rather than using dialectics to grasp the movement of real historical forces. By demanding that anti-imperialist movements be led by perfectly conscious proletarian forces before they deserve support, Trotskyism isolates revolutionaries from the masses they seek to lead and objectively strengthens the hand of the principal enemy. It is reactionary because it blocks the formation of united fronts against hegemony, dismisses the genuine anti-colonial content of multipolarity demands, and substitutes moral denunciation for the patient work of building working-class independence within actually existing movements. Scientific socialism requires us to start from material conditions, not from doctrinal purity, and to recognize that the path to revolution runs through the concrete contradictions of our time, not through the abstract categories of a frozen orthodoxy.

          All the errors traced through this critique flow from a single, foundational break: the abandonment of dialectical and historical materialism as the method of scientific socialism. When analysis begins with abstract categories like “imperialist” or “social-imperialist” applied mechanically, rather than with a concrete examination of production relations, class forces, and historical specificity, the conclusions are predetermined by the schema, not discovered through investigation. This is why the article collapses distinct social formations into a false equivalence, why it substitutes moral denunciation for strategic assessment, and why its prescription of “oppose all equally” becomes a sterile formula that objectively upholds the hegemony it claims to fight. Scientific socialism does not proceed by labeling but by uncovering the movement of contradictions within actually existing conditions. Multipolarity is not an end-state to be celebrated or condemned in the abstract; it is a contradictory terrain shaped by the struggle between hegemonic capital and sovereign development, within which class struggle must be advanced. Our task is not to stand outside this terrain in doctrinal purity but to engage it, to build proletarian independence within anti-hegemonic movements, and to push the logic of multipolarity beyond bourgeois limits toward genuine internationalism. To do that, we must return to the method that makes our politics scientific: the concrete analysis of concrete conditions, rooted in the living dialectic of historical materialism. Anything else is not Marxism, but book worship dressed in revolutionary phraseology.

          • lemonwood@lemmy.ml
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            2 months ago

            The slogan “oppose all equally” may sound revolutionary in its refusal to compromise, but detached from dialectical and historical materialism it collapses into abstract moralism that objectively serves the very hegemony it claims to reject.

            Yes! Say it louder for the people in the back. Even some well meaning western marxists really struggle with this, because it touches on their privilege.

        • zedcell@lemmygrad.ml
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          2 months ago

          Trotskyists failing to understand Lenin’s Imperialism for the 1000th time.

          Imperialism is the stage of Capitalism where a militaristic foreign policy is developed and employed as a continuation of economic policy.

          China is not doing imperialism because it trades with other nations and helps them build infrastructure and factories in win-win negotiations. When was the last time China got a trade deal or negotiated settlement because it pointed a load of guns and missiles at its potential trade partner?

          Just childish and pathetic both sides-ism of the social fascists.

          • ThirdConsul@lemmy.zip
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            2 months ago

            When was the last time China got a trade deal or negotiated settlement because it pointed a load of guns and

            ~1950.

            Imperialism is the stage of Capitalism where a militaristic foreign policy is developed and employed as a continuation of economic policy.

            Same book - “socialist in words, imperialist in deeds”? But that doesn’t really matter, as you’re just gonna cherry pick other Lenin quotes at me like if its the Bible. Or call me names.

            Nonetheless, I highly recommend the article I linked - but since it might paint a picture that you’re unable to comprehend (or unwilling to entertain), you will of course not read it.

            • 秦始皇帝@lemmy.ml
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              2 months ago

              This new article is again garbage. It repeats the same fundamental errors as the last one: it abandons dialectical and historical materialism for mechanical economism and abstract moralism. To break with the method of scientific socialism is to break with socialism itself. Pröbsting reduces the question of China’s class character to a tally of billionaires and Fortune 500 rankings, which is bourgeois sociology dressed in Marxist phraseology. As I established in the previous reply, imperialism is defined by the qualitative enforcement of unequal exchange and the extraction of super profits from the periphery to the core, not by counting rich people. Pröbsting ignores this entirely, substituting a schematic checklist for the concrete analysis of concrete conditions that is again the living soul of Marxism.

              The claim that China restored capitalism in the 1990s rests on a vulgar understanding of the socialist transitionary period. Yes, China retains contradictions. Yes, market mechanisms operate. Yes, inequality has grown. But none of this proves capitalist restoration when analyzed dialectically. The commanding heights remain under public ownership, the Communist Party retains the leading role, and development is subordinated to long-term social stability rather than short-term monopoly profit maximization (mass poverty alleviation, massive public infrastructure investment etc. all non monetarily profitable) . This is not “socialism in textbooks only” as Pröbsting sneers. It is actually existing socialism navigating the contradictions of hostile imperialist encirclement. To declare that any use of market tools equals capitalist restoration is to abandon historical materialism for a purist idealism that has never existed nor will ever exist in any successful revolution.

              Pröbsting’s characterization of China as imperialist repeats the same false equivalence I dismantled in the previous reply. He points to Chinese FDI in the Global South and declares this proof of imperialist extraction, ignoring the qualitative difference between infrastructure investment that builds productive capacity and the predatory loan conditions, structural adjustment programs, and military coercion that define Euro-Amerikan imperialism. As noted before, China’s engagements operate within a framework of non-interference and sovereign partnership that, however imperfect, creates space for development outside Western conditionality. To conflate these distinct modalities is to abandon the dialectical method.

              The article’s reliance on tables of billionaire counts as “proof” of imperialism is the same economistic error I identified in the RCIT piece. Modern imperialism is defined through the fusion of bank and industrial capital, the export of capital superseding commodity export, and the territorial division of the world among monopoly alliances. Applying this today requires examining how value actually flows through the global circuit of capital. Pröbsting’s tables prove that China has wealthy individuals and large corporations. They do not prove that China extracts super profits from the Global South through unequal exchange. In fact, numerous studies show that terms of trade between China and African nations have improved relative to the pre-2000 period, and that Chinese investment has contributed to industrialization in ways Western capital systematically avoided. This is not apology. It is insistence that historical materialism analyzes concrete social formations, not abstract labels.

              The political conclusion Pröbsting draws, that socialists must “oppose all equally,” is the same abstract internationalism I criticized before. Detached from dialectical analysis, this slogan collapses into centrism that objectively upholds the hegemony it claims to reject. As I argued in the previous reply, to declare neutrality between an empire with eight hundred overseas bases and states that merely seek to weaken that empire’s stranglehold is not principled internationalism. It is a refusal to analyze the concrete balance of forces, and in practice it aids the stronger power. Lenin criticized this centrism as the highest form of opportunism because it cloaks passivity in revolutionary phraseology.

              Underlying all these errors is the Trotskyist method I identified in the previous reply: a sectarian refusal to engage with actually existing struggles in favor of a pure, abstract schema. Pröbsting demands that anti-imperialist movements be led by perfectly conscious proletarian forces before they deserve support, which isolates revolutionaries from the masses they seek to lead. This is the “infantile disorder” Lenin warned against. Scientific socialism requires us to start from material conditions, not doctrinal purity. Multipolarity is not an end-state to be celebrated or condemned in the abstract. It is a contradictory terrain within which class struggle must be advanced. The task is not and has never been to stand outside denouncing all equally, but to engage it, to build proletarian independence within anti-hegemonic movements, and to push multipolarity beyond bourgeois limits toward genuine internationalism. To do that, you must return to the method that makes socialism scientific: the concrete analysis of concrete conditions. Anything else just dogma dressed in revolutionary phraseology.

              • lemonwood@lemmy.ml
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                2 months ago

                You could write a whole article about this. I’d read it. I’m mean, you basically did. Maybe with some statistics added in about more commodity export than capital export and about how countries benefitted from trade with China and about how China is mostly a victim of and not benefiting from unequal exchange.

                • 秦始皇帝@lemmy.ml
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                  2 months ago

                  Thank you. I might at some point but for now I’m happy simply posting comments on anything interesting I come across.

            • zedcell@lemmygrad.ml
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              2 months ago

              The article is complete garbage, picked apart well by the other reply you had.

              Not least because it spouted off the Uyghur genocide bullshit to smear China.

              “Like it’s the bible.” You are a fucking idiot. Trotskyists call shit imperialist then when you point out that they are wrong and don’t even understand the book that they pulled the term from you get accused of quote mining. Get a grip.

        • 秦始皇帝@lemmy.ml
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          2 months ago

          This article is garbage because it abandons the very method that makes socialism scientific. Dialectical and historical materialism are not optional accessories to Marxist thought; they are its core foundations, and to break with them is to break with scientific socialism as a whole. The article’s definition of imperialism remains stuck at the level of quantitative description, ignoring how modern imperialism functions through the enforcement of unequal exchange and the systematic extraction of super profits from the periphery to the core. This qualitative dimension is essential because imperialism is not merely about military bases or corporate size; it is about the global circuit of capital that reproduces dependency and drains value from oppressed nations. When we apply this materialist framework to Russia, we must acknowledge that it is a capitalist state with possible imperialist ambitions, yet the devastating aftermath of shock therapy left it without the economic means to project power as a classic imperialist state. This structural weakness has pushed Russia toward backing anti-imperialist struggles throughout the periphery as its primary method of competing with the entrenched imperial core bloc, a position determined by concrete historical conditions rather than abstract moral equivalence. China presents a fundamentally different case because its mode of production retains a socialist character grounded in public ownership of the commanding heights of the economy, the leading role of the Communist Party, and a development model subordinated to social need rather than monopoly profit maximization. This does not mean China is free of contradictions, but the dominant logic of its political economy is not driven by the imperative to extract super profits from the Global South. Instead, its foreign policy, however imperfect, aligns with breaking the chains of unequal exchange and creating space for sovereign development. To collapse these distinct material realities into a single “multi-imperialist” label is to abandon the concrete analysis of concrete conditions that Lenin identified as the living soul of Marxism.

          This false equivalence between US hegemony and the multipolar framework extends from a refusal to analyze the actual architecture of global power. The contemporary imperialist system is not a collection of equal great powers but a hierarchical structure of Euro-Amerikan hegemony led by the United States and integrated through institutional mechanisms like NATO, Five Eyes, AUKUS, and the G7. Europe, Oceania, and numerous vassal states are not independent poles but subordinate components of this core bloc, bound by military integration, financial dependency, and ideological alignment. This is the actually existing unipolar order that multipolarity challenges. Within this context, both Russia and China support anti-imperialist struggles across the periphery, but they do so for fundamentally different reasons rooted in their distinct material conditions. Russia, as a capitalist state weakened by the catastrophic legacy of shock therapy, backs anti-hegemonic movements as a strategic necessity: lacking the economic mass to compete through direct imperial projection, it aligns with forces that weaken the US-led bloc, creating breathing room for its own sovereignty and regional influence. China, by contrast, operates from a socialist mode of production where the state retains command over the commanding heights of the economy and where development is subordinated to long-term social stability rather than monopoly profit extraction. Its support for multipolarity stems not from a drive to dominate the Global South but from a structural interest in dismantling the unequal exchange mechanisms that have historically drained value from oppressed nations, including its own experience of semi-colonial subjugation. To conflate these two distinct positions, or to equate either with the predatory logic of Euro-Amerikan imperialism, is to abandon the dialectical method that requires us to analyze the specific character of each social formation and its place within the global contradiction.

    • 秦始皇帝@lemmy.ml
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      2 months ago

      China has democracy. Just not bourgeois liberal democracy. The Chinese political system is based on whole-process people’s democracy, a form of consultative democracy. The local levels are directly elected, and then these representatives from around the country elect people to higher rungs, meaning any candidate at the top level must have worked their way up from the bottom and directly proved themselves. Also due to the nature of things the vast majority of representatives are among those directly elected by the people. You should research things before you just say things. And we’re very happy with our system. Even Harvard puts the approval rating around 95%.

        • RiverRock@lemmy.ml
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          2 months ago

          There are nine political parties in the PRC

          Eveey democracy index

          The very unbiased FreedomBurger Institute gives China 0/10 Freedoms

        • 秦始皇帝@lemmy.ml
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          2 months ago

          If China is a democracy, what opposition parties and media not related to government are in there?

          Democracy is not defined by how many parties exist. It means that political authority comes from the people and that the population participates in governance. Different societies organize that participation differently. Liberal systems center competitive parties and election campaigns. China organizes participation through elections at the grassroots level combined with consultation and representation throughout the policy process.

          In China we call this whole-process people’s democracy. The idea is that democracy should not exist only on election day every few years. It should exist through the entire political process: discussion, drafting policy, consultation with social groups, implementation, and feedback.

          At the local level, people directly elect deputies to township and county People’s Congresses. These bodies then elect representatives to higher levels, which continues upward through provincial congresses and ultimately to the National People’s Congress. Because of this structure, most officials reach higher positions only after years working at lower levels where they directly interact with voters. Advancement depends on performance, governance results, and evaluation by the people and bodies that elected them.

          China also has a consultative system through the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. Multiple legally recognized parties and mass organizations participate there along with the Communist Party. Trade unions, ethnic organizations, professional associations, business groups, and other social bodies submit proposals and participate in consultation before policy decisions are finalized. It is not an adversarial party competition model, but it is still a structured form of representation.

          There’s only one party in China, every communication channel is controlled by party

          China does manage information. But I would recommend learning about Parenti’s concept of “inventing reality.” In capitalist systems the media is formally private, but in practice it is owned by a handful of large corporations and billionaires. Those owners decide what stories are emphasized, what narratives are framed as legitimate, and what perspectives are marginalized.

          That kind of control is less visible but still very real. A small group of capital owners has enormous influence over what hundreds of millions of people see and how events are interpreted. So the idea that Western media is completely free from power structures is not serious. Remember Cambridge analytica?

          China consistently ranks near the bottom in every democracy index

          “But the eagle burger institute of goodness says China bad”. These indexes measure democracy using a definition that assumes Western liberal institutions as the universal standard. If your scoring system requires competitive multi-party elections and privately owned media corporations, then of course a different political model will rank poorly.

          China measures legitimacy differently. The government is evaluated based on outcomes and public satisfaction. Long-running surveys like the Harvard Ash Center study consistently find extremely high levels of reported public satisfaction with government performance in China.

          You can disagree with the Chinese political system. That is fine. But reducing democracy to “number of parties” or citing Western indexes without examining how the Chinese system actually works is not a serious analysis.

        • Riverside@reddthat.com
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          2 months ago

          If China is a democracy, what opposition parties and media not related to government are in there?

          “If China is a democracy, why isn’t there the constant threat of a far right party destroying the economy and all social welfare, and why don’t they have tabloids propagating fake news?”

          You’ve literally seen the televised collusion of all western media and parties defending the Isntreali genocide in Palestine and denying reality, and you still believe we have independent media and politicians

        • KimBongUn420@lemmy.ml
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          2 months ago

          If China is a democracy, what opposition parties and media not related to government are in there?

          Democracy is if you have political parties, the more you have the democratier it is

      • flyby@lemmy.zip
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        2 months ago

        Polls in authoritarian countries are notoriously more positive about own countries than in democratic ones due to insane amount of propaganda (yes, even compared to US). In which next country do we di polls next - Russia or North Korea?

        • 秦始皇帝@lemmy.ml
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          2 months ago

          So we’re just too subhuman and brainwashed to answer a Harvard poll about our thoughts correctly?

        • RiverRock@lemmy.ml
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          2 months ago

          “Umm they’re they Bad Country sweaty you can’t trust the people there. Just like the other Bad Countries!”

          You are a political toddler and the fact that you don’t understand this while our side diddles kids and bombs elementary schools is insane

          • flyby@lemmy.zip
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            2 months ago

            You are just privileged idealist disappointed in your own system so you try to latch on something completely opposite in order to belong somewhere. I have experienced living under one of those systems and fleeing it to one of the “West Bad!” countries. I am both envious that you didn’t have to go through this and pitying you that eventually you will be disappointed in your new “Good Country” choice

            • 秦始皇帝@lemmy.ml
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              2 months ago

              Lmao you’re another one of the post soviet 20 something’s who think shock therapy was communism’s fault. Or you’re a reactionary who fled because you’re a right wing loser either way it explains your white man’s burden chauvinism.

            • RiverRock@lemmy.ml
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              2 months ago

              Lol what an amazing self report on how your psychology works, you petty little man. Pure team sports, no analysis. I would feel bad for you if you weren’t so desperate to ignore reality in favor of regurgitation propaganda

        • BrainInABox@lemmy.ml
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          2 months ago

          “During the cold war, the anticommunist ideological framework could transform any data about existing communist societies into hostile evidence. If the Soviets refused to negotiate a point, they were intransigent and belligerent; if they appeared willing to make concessions, this was but a skillful ploy to put us off our guard. By opposing arms limitations, they would have demonstrated their aggressive intent; but when in fact they supported most armament treaties, it was because they were mendacious and manipulative. If the churches in the USSR were empty, this demonstrated that religion was suppressed; but if the churches were full, this meant the people were rejecting the regime’s atheistic ideology. If the workers went on strike (as happened on infrequent occasions), this was evidence of their alienation from the collectivist system; if they didn’t go on strike, this was because they were intimidated and lacked freedom. A scarcity of consumer goods demonstrated the failure of the economic system; an improvement in consumer supplies meant only that the leaders were attempting to placate a restive population and so maintain a firmer hold over them. If communists in the United States played an important role struggling for the rights of workers, the poor, African-Americans, women, and others, this was only their guileful way of gathering support among disfranchised groups and gaining power for themselves. How one gained power by fighting for the rights of powerless groups was never explained. What we are dealing with is a nonfalsifiable orthodoxy, so assiduously marketed by the ruling interests that it affected people across the entire political spectrum.”

          Blackshirts and Reds, Michael Parenti

        • tobi_tensei@lemmy.ml
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          2 months ago

          “C’mon, Chinese govt lifted 800 million people out of extreme poverty. Took the country from one of the poorest in a world to a world power. All this in just 4 decades and you expect the people to hate the govt.”

    • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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      2 months ago

      They aren’t, though. China is a rising socialist state, and the US is a dying, brutal empire run be pedophiles and fascists.

      • lentildrop@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        China is a capitalist country where capital and the billionaire class are tightly integrated with the government. They are a global imperial superpower like the US. They are not better and its insane to praise China as a socialist utopia IMO.

        • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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          2 months ago

          Public ownership is the principal aspect of China’s economy, and capitalists are held on a tight leash to focus on developing the productive forces. The large firms and key industries in China are publicly owned, it’s only the small and medium firms that are private.

          The form of democracy and the mode of production in China ensures that there is a connection between the people and the state. Policies like the mass line are in place to ensure this direct connection remains. This is why over 90% of the Chinese population supports the government, and why they have such strong perceptions around democracy:

          The Chinese political system is based on whole-process people’s democracy, a form of consultative democracy. The local government is directly elected, and then these governments elect people to higher rungs, meaning any candidate at the top level must have worked their way up from the bottom and directly proved themselves. Moreover, the economy in the PRC is socialist, with public ownership as the principle aspect of the economy. Combining this consultative, ground-up democracy with top-down economic planning is the key to China’s success.

          I highly recommend Roland Boer’s Socialism in Power: On the History and Theory of Socialist Governance. Socialist democracy has been imperfect, but has gone through a number of changes and adaptations over the years as we’ve learned more from testing theory to practice. Boer goes over the history behind socialist democracy in this textbook.

          China does have billionaires, as you might then protest. China is in the developing stages of socialism. Between capitalism, which is characterized by private ownership being the principle aspect of the economy and the capitalists in control of the state, and communism, characterized by full collectivization of production and distribution devoid of classes, is socialism, where public ownership is principle and the working classes in control. China in particular is working its way out of the initial stages of socialism:

          The reason China has billionaires is because China has private property, and the reason it has private property is because of 2 major factors: the world economy is still dominated by the US empire, and because you cannot simply abolish private property at the stroke of a pen. China tried that already. The Gang of Four tried to dogmatically force a publicly owned and planned economy when the infrastructure best suited to that hadn’t been laid out by markets, and as a consequence growth was positive but highly unstable.

          Why does it matter that the US Empire controls the world economy? Because as capitalism monopolizes, it is compelled to expand outward in order to fight falling rates of profit by raising absolute profits. The merging of bank and industrial capital into finance capital leads to export of capital, ie outsourcing. This process allows super-exploitation for super-profits, and is known as imperialism.

          In the People’s Republic of China, under Mao and later the Gang of Four, growth was overall positive but was unstable. The centrally planned economy had brought great benefits in many areas, but because the productive forces themselves were underdeveloped, economic growth wasn’t steady. There began to be discussion and division in the party, until Deng Xiapoing’s faction pushing for Reform and Opening Up won out, and growth was stabilized:

          Deng’s plan was to introduce market reforms, localized around Special Economic Zones, while maintaining full control over the principle aspects of the economy. Limited private capital would be introduced, especially by luring in foreign investors, such as the US, pivoting from more isolationist positions into one fully immersed in the global marketplace. As the small and medium firms grow into large firms, the state exerts more control and subsumes them more into the public sector. This was a gamble, but unlike what happened to the USSR, this was done in a controlled manner that ended up not undermining the socialist system overall.

          China’s rapidly improving productive forces and cheap labor ended up being an irresistable match for US financial capital, even though the CPC maintained full sovereignty. This is in stark contrast to how the global north traditionally acts imperialistically, because it relies on financial and millitant dominance of the global south. This is why there is a “love/hate” relationship between the US Empire and PRC, the US wants more freedom for capital movement while the CPC is maintaining dominance.

          Fast-forward to today, and the benefits of the CPC’s gamble are paying off. The US Empire is de-industrializing, while China is a productive super-power. The CPC has managed to maintain full control, and while there are neoliberals in China pushing for more liberalization now, the path to exerting more socialization is also open, and the economy is still socialist. It is the job of the CPC to continue building up the productive forces, while gradually winning back more of the benefits the working class enjoyed under the previous era, developing to higher and higher stages of socialism.

          In doing this, China has presented itself to the global south as an alternative to the unequal exchange the global north does with the global south, which is accelerating the development of the global south. China is taking a more indirect method of undermining global imperialism than, say, the USSR, but its been remarkably effective at uplifting the global working classes, especially in China but also in the global south.

          To call China “imperialist” or “capitalist” is to either invent a fantasy of China or to not understand imperialism, capitalism, or socialism. China isn’t a utopia, it’s a real socialist country.

        • freagle@lemmy.ml
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          2 months ago

          What kind of global imperial superpower doesn’t drop bombs for 35 years in a row? That doesn’t sound like any global imperial superpower I have ever heard of in the last 600 years. If China is a global imperial superpower without doing the whole war crimes thing, I’m almost inclined to say you’ve sold me on global imperialist superpowers being redeemable!

      • Pman@lemmy.org
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        2 months ago

        Don’t look at the Uyghur and Tibetan genocides behind the mirror. Look any country that ce realizes power in the hands of few will inevitably have that power used in terrible and stupid ways, you see that with the supreme court and the current president of the US, but you definitely saw it with the Stalin and Mao regimes back in the day and Xi isn’t that much better. Just because you aren’t aware of their expansionish and international bullying tendancies doesn’t mean they don’t exist. You can say that the current US government is bad and still be right about the CCP being bad as well. The best government is one that is responsive to its peoples needs and even if you ignore the genocides above just look at how Xi’s government handled lockdowns where they literally welded people into their apartments to stop the spread of covid, the crackdown on Hong Kong’s protests and free speech over their elected representatives being decided by the CCP and not the people of Hong Kong, the land grabs in northern India, the territorial claims in the south china sea, and all this while their country is suffering a severe economic crisis created by the government central planning and how properties are managed in china. Is there good in China? Yes they have a vibrant tech industry that is able to upgrade GPUs on the fly with more ram or build custom Iphones for example but that doesn’t stop the fact that private messages are scraped and purged if they don’t comport with the allowed speech from the CCP.

        You might think that means I like the current way things are going stateside but that would be wrong, with tech giants asking for legal ID for using your own hardware, for backdoors in encrypted messaging, for you no longer being able to own what you bought and paid for, means that freedom and privacy seems to be commodities that the rich and powerful, no matter the type of government, don’t want you to have. I can guarantee that the fact that we can’t get universal healthcare in the US has a similar issue in china that they would love to have access to and wouldn’t be hard to implement but would mean that CCP control would be lessened, be it freedom of speech (see Tineman Square protests), freedom of assembly (the same), freedom of movement (see covid restrictions where people were welded into their apartments and certain regions of china (not just military instillations, where people can’t enter or leave such as Xinjiang).

        In short China is what it has always been a land empire in east Asia who forces homogenity in their culture and doesn’t like dissent, but promotes education for at least the ruling class and usually becomes too top heavy and collapses in on itself into civil war that kills millions.

        • freagle@lemmy.ml
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          2 months ago

          Wow. Just wow. You can’t possibly be this wrong, can you?

          Let’s start with naming things. Han. The predominant Chinese culture you refer to is Han Chinese.

          Let’s look at one law that everyone loves to talk about - the One Child Policy.

          Did you know that the One Child Policy only applied to Han Chinese? That’s right. The Chinese government explicitly and openly promoted heterogeneity by limiting Han birth rates explicitly. Some other minorities were also restricted, that’s true, but they were restricted to two children - double the birthrate of the Han. All the other minorities were unrestricted.

          That’s just one example of how wrong you are. Shall we do others?

          Tibet and Xinjiang educate their children in their native language, in their native cultural traditions, and the governments of those regions run those regions in accordance with their best interpretation of the confluence between their own traditions and the Chinese system of government.

          Let’s compare that to the US or Canada, shall we? No? You don’t want me to explain how Indian boarding schools literally beat children for speaking their native tongue, forcibly cut their traditional hair styles, and trained the children to hate their own families? You don’t want to hear about how such boarding schools existed into the 80s? Should we talk about US eugenics programs and the forced sterilization of a full third of the women on Puerto Rico or the forced sterilization of black and Indian women on the mainland? Is that too much for you?

          How much more wrong can you possibly be?

          China officially recognizes 11 languages that can be used to conduct official business. Eleven. Most American politicians couldn’t even name 11 languages.

          Do you still think enforces homogeneity? Are you so committed to your position that evidence cannot do anything to your Yellow Peril brain?

            • freagle@lemmy.ml
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              Yeah… so, recognizing that population competition is one of the ways that dominance can be exerted, China choosing to limit birth rates of the most populous ethnicity, which happens to be the dominant one, would be the opposite of eugenics used for reinforcing dominance. It’s actually an incredible defense of China because it shows that not only are they nothing like the West, the West can’t even conceive of what would motivate the dominant people to restrict their own privileges to reverse historical trends caused by dominance of their forebears.

              You’ve got to be kidding comparing the One Child Policy of the dominant ethnic group, which the government itself was predominately composed of, and literal genocide and cultural genocide of white supremacists against the people they violently colonized.

              • AlexanderTheDead@lemmy.world
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                That doesn’t make it not definitionally eugenics. It is definitionally eugenics. I have trouble dancing around this topic because I CAN understand the benefits of limiting population growth, and I even understand what you’re saying about “dominant ethnic groups”.

                But at the end of the day, eugenics is eugenics is eugenics. Feel free to make an argument about how this is morally acceptable eugenics. It’s still eugenics.

                Edit: and no, you don’t get to decide what is an “incredible defense of China”. I do. The neutral party leftist who hates America and is interested in Chinese policies but is also not stupid enough to fall into a new propaganda sinkhole to cope with the fact that I was propagandized my whole life. This is a bad defense of China.

            • RiverRock@lemmy.ml
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              You people are determined to reduce every single word used to describe a crime against humanity to meaninglessness, aren’t you? You did it first with genocide (genocide is now when you implement jobs training programs and enshrine cultural protections into law, but you do it while being Asian and not capitalist) and it seems like you’re hellbent on doing it with eugenics too

              • AlexanderTheDead@lemmy.world
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                Lmfao “it’s not eugenics to have specific breeding programs which specifically limit specific ethnic backgrounds” 😭 yeah dude I’m totally being reductive and you’re not just defending literal eugenics by using mental gymnastics.

                You are the one being reductive.

                edit: “i love licking boots and believe all the propaganda of other governments because america government is the only bad one!!! I have no ability to read between lines and critically analyze when human rights violations are taking place!! But none of that matters because what about America??? What about America??”

                • RiverRock@lemmy.ml
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                  breeding programs

                  Yup, there you go doing it again. War is peace, ignorance is strength, not breeding is a breeding program

        • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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          2 months ago

          This is nonsense gish gallop.

          Xinjiang

          Uyghurs are not being tortured and killed.

          The best and most comprehensive resource I have seen so far is Qiao Collective’s Xinjiang: A Resource and Report Compilation. Qiao Collective is explicitly pro-PRC, but this is an extremely comprehensive write-up of the entire background of the events, the timeline of reports, and real and fake claims.

          I also recommend reading the UN report and China’s response to it. These are the most relevant accusations and responses without delving into straight up fantasy like Adrian Zenz, professional propagandist for the Victims of Communism Foundation, does.

          Tourists do go to Xinjiang all the time, yes. You can watch videos like this one on YouTube, though it obviously isn’t going to be a comprehensive view of a complex situation like this.

          Tibet

          Tibet was a feudal slave society backed by the CIA. The PLA liberated Tibet. Friendly Feudalism: The Tibet Myth:

          Drepung monastery was one of the biggest landowners in the world, with its 185 manors, 25,000 serfs, 300 great pastures, and 16,000 herdsmen. The wealth of the monasteries rested in the hands of small numbers of high-ranking lamas. Most ordinary monks lived modestly and had no direct access to great wealth. The Dalai Lama himself “lived richly in the 1000-room, 14-story Potala Palace.” [12]

          Secular leaders also did well. A notable example was the commander-in-chief of the Tibetan army, a member of the Dalai Lama’s lay Cabinet, who owned 4,000 square kilometers of land and 3,500 serfs. [13] Old Tibet has been misrepresented by some Western admirers as “a nation that required no police force because its people voluntarily observed the laws of karma.” [14] In fact it had a professional army, albeit a small one, that served mainly as a gendarmerie for the landlords to keep order, protect their property, and hunt down runaway serfs.

          Young Tibetan boys were regularly taken from their peasant families and brought into the monasteries to be trained as monks. Once there, they were bonded for life. Tashì-Tsering, a monk, reports that it was common for peasant children to be sexually mistreated in the monasteries. He himself was a victim of repeatedremoved, beginning at age nine. [15] The monastic estates also conscripted children for lifelong servitude as domestics, dance performers, and soldiers.

          In old Tibet there were small numbers of farmers who subsisted as a kind of free peasantry, and perhaps an additional 10,000 people who composed the “middle-class” families of merchants, shopkeepers, and small traders. Thousands of others were beggars. There also were slaves, usually domestic servants, who owned nothing. Their offspring were born into slavery. [16] The majority of the rural population were serfs. Treated little better than slaves, the serfs went without schooling or medical care. They were under a lifetime bond to work the lord’s land — or the monastery’s land — without pay, to repair the lord’s houses, transport his crops, and collect his firewood. They were also expected to provide carrying animals and transportation on demand. [17] Their masters told them what crops to grow and what animals to raise. They could not get married without the consent of their lord or lama. And they might easily be separated from their families should their owners lease them out to work in a distant location. [18]

          As in a free labor system and unlike slavery, the overlords had no responsibility for the serf’s maintenance and no direct interest in his or her survival as an expensive piece of property. The serfs had to support themselves. Yet as in a slave system, they were bound to their masters, guaranteeing a fixed and permanent workforce that could neither organize nor strike nor freely depart as might laborers in a market context. The overlords had the best of both worlds.

          One 22-year old woman, herself a runaway serf, reports: “Pretty serf girls were usually taken by the owner as house servants and used as he wished”; they “were just slaves without rights.” [19] Serfs needed permission to go anywhere. Landowners had legal authority to capture those who tried to flee. One 24-year old runaway welcomed the Chinese intervention as a “liberation.” He testified that under serfdom he was subjected to incessant toil, hunger, and cold. After his third failed escape, he was merciless beaten by the landlord’s men until blood poured from his nose and mouth. They then poured alcohol and caustic soda on his wounds to increase the pain, he claimed. [20]

          The serfs were taxed upon getting married, taxed for the birth of each child and for every death in the family. They were taxed for planting a tree in their yard and for keeping animals. They were taxed for religious festivals and for public dancing and drumming, for being sent to prison and upon being released. Those who could not find work were taxed for being unemployed, and if they traveled to another village in search of work, they paid a passage tax. When people could not pay, the monasteries lent them money at 20 to 50 percent interest. Some debts were handed down from father to son to grandson. Debtors who could not meet their obligations risked being cast into slavery. [21]

          The theocracy’s religious teachings buttressed its class order. The poor and afflicted were taught that they had brought their troubles upon themselves because of their wicked ways in previous lives. Hence they had to accept the misery of their present existence as a karmic atonement and in anticipation that their lot would improve in their next lifetime. The rich and powerful treated their good fortune as a reward for, and tangible evidence of, virtue in past and present lives.

          -Dr. Michael Parenti

          Tian’anmen

          Of the few hundred people that died in the riots and fighting, the square was dispersed peacefully. The truth about Tian’anmen is that hundreds of protestors and PLA officers were killed in Beijing that day as the PLA advanced towards the square, but that the square itself was evacuated peacefully, which matches leaked US cables and the CPC’s official stance on what it calls the “June 4th incident”. This is a rejection of the commonly reported story of 10,000 people being killed on the square itself, which originated from a British diplomat’s cable. Said diplomat was later confirmed to have evacuated well before.

          Western nations intentionally sensationalize the quantity of deaths and the character of the events. This is also why Western Nations don’t frequently report on the South Korean Gwang-Ju massacre that occured around the same era, where the South Korean millitary murdered thousands of High School and College students protesting against Chun Do-Hwan’s dictatorship. All of what I said is backed up by the Wikipedia page for Tian’anmen Square Protests and Massacre, such as Alan Donald revising his estimate from 10,000 to the low thousands yet BBC continuing to report the 10,000 figure:

          In a disputed cable sent in the aftermath of the events at Tiananmen, British Ambassador Alan Donald initially claimed, based on information from a “good friend” in the State Council of China, that a minimum of 10,000 civilians died,[237] claims which were repeated in a speech by Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke,[238] but which is an estimated number much higher than other sources provided.[239][240] After the declassification, former student protest leader Feng Congde pointed out that Donald later revised his estimate to 2,700–3,400 deaths.

          Democracy

          The form of democracy and the mode of production in China ensures that there is a connection between the people and the state. Policies like the mass line are in place to ensure this direct connection remains. This is why over 90% of the Chinese population supports the government, and why they have such strong perceptions around democracy.

          The Chinese political system is based on whole-process people’s democracy, a form of consultative democracy. The local government is directly elected, and then these governments elect people to higher rungs, meaning any candidate at the top level must have worked their way up from the bottom and directly proved themselves. Moreover, the economy in the PRC is socialist, with public ownership as the principle aspect of the economy. Combining this consultative, ground-up democracy with top-down economic planning is the key to China’s success.

          I highly recommend Roland Boer’s Socialism in Power: On the History and Theory of Socialist Governance. Socialist democracy has been imperfect, but has gone through a number of changes and adaptations over the years as we’ve learned more from testing theory to practice. Boer goes over the history behind socialist democracy in this textbook.

          • Pman@lemmy.org
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            2 months ago

            First of all, how do you not have diabetes drinking that much Kool-Aid? Second if a serial rapist rapes a serial killer who is the good guy between the two of them? Trump claims to have very different support numbers than reality shows and in a dictatorship being publicly against the regime is a great way to accidentally fall out of a window down and onto a bunch of bullets or somehow get polonium poisoning for some reason. A whataboutism is a great way to distract from the issues at hand but just because the US has a bunch of issues with democracy doesn’t mean china doesn’t have issues, and denying them with state propaganda (an appeal to authority) with arguable levels of factuality doesn’t negate the issue.

            • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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              You’re arguing against numbers published by Harvard. None of what I said is “Kool-Aid.” Secondly, using publicly funded information is not an “appeal to authority,” saying someone knows xyz because they are a specialist in something is an appeal to authority (and that isn’t a fallacy).

        • 秦始皇帝@lemmy.ml
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          In short China is what it has always been a land empire in east Asia who forces homogenity in their culture and doesn’t like dissent, but promotes education for at least the ruling class and usually becomes too top heavy and collapses in on itself into civil war that kills millions.

          Holy Orientalism.

          You are a racist.

          I hope you get a chance to look in the mirror and better yourself.

    • KurtVonnegut [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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      2 months ago

      The United States of America just assisted in carrying out a genocide.

      China has lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty through progressive economic policies.

      Please tell me, specifically, why “both states are awful.”

      • davel@lemmy.ml
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        2 months ago

        A lot of people are so blackpilled by capitalist realism that they think “all sides bad” is the enlightened position of Serious People. It also conveniently means that There Is No Alternative, and there’s no point in trying to assert change.

      • SpicyLizards@reddthat.com
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        2 months ago

        Lol. Sorry, one is absolutely perfect and must not have any problems spoken about. Let’s do some more you vs us bullshit (not that I am from either).

        • RiverRock@lemmy.ml
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          Lol you’re doing the angry 12 year old thing of throwing up your hands and going “Oh so China must be an absolute perfect heaven on earth, huh?!”

          • Tenniswaffles@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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            The way I see it talked about, that seems to be how a lot of people think. Every time a flaw about China is brought up there will always be someone with paragraphs upon paragraphs of denials. No matter how big or small the flaw.

            Which reeks of people paid to post biased propaganda, and if they’re not being paid that’s just pathetic for defending a government as vehemently as they do.

            I also have not once seen a person simping for China accept a specific criticism.

            • orc girly@lemmy.ml
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              The issue is that the “criticisms” that people bring up aren’t reality, they’re propaganda. We can talk about real issues just fine, if/when you spend the time first learning how China really is, then we can actually have a productive discussion and treat you seriously. As it is we’re not gonna act as if disproven shit is real.

              • Tenniswaffles@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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                2 months ago

                Give me some actual flaws then. No government is without flaw, so prove that you can actually speak negatively about China.

                You also have fail to address the fact that many people will spend so much time and effort on arguing in Chinas favour. Everyone and their dog just seem to be waiting for the chance to write their dissertation on the benevolence of China, and yet rarely do I see the same in defence of western countries. Does that not reek of an intentional propaganda campaign to you? Not that you’ll ever admit that.

                • 秦始皇帝@lemmy.ml
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                  Everyone and their dog just seem to be waiting for the chance to write their dissertation on the benevolence of China, and yet rarely do I see the same in defence of western countries.

                  Have you considered that what looks like “dissertations” might just be people applying materialist analysis, seeking truth from facts against the propaganda wave?

                  That China, flaws and contradictions included, has still secured historical wins for the proletariat of the periphery (especially in China), while the Western imperial bloc runs and has been running the world’s largest and most advanced exploitation and immiseration machine in human history on throughout the periphery?

                  So of course dissecting China takes nuance to weigh the real gains against the flaws and discern the truth from the wave of lies?

                  When you do a material analysis of the West and what’s left to weigh? Just capitalist plunder, imperialist immiseration, and fascism.

            • 秦始皇帝@lemmy.ml
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              2 months ago

              Have you considered a lot of your criticism are not accepted or have paragraphs of denials analysis because a lot of your criticism stem from a faulty base understanding and/or analysis (such as overstating the scale/scope of the issue if it exists or hammering on criticisms that aren’t real like the “genocide”)?

              Just an example of what I’m talking about: The hukou system in the modern day is deeply flawed and there are many criticisms to be made of it such as it leading to wage disparity etc. However if I were to then say that the hukou system never made any sense, was senseless cruelty or some other such nonsense jumped off from it that would necessitate a few paragraphs of explanation and rebuttal to reach the truth of the matter. Which is that the system in the modern day is outdated and harmful but was a necessary policy to avoid massive slums forming and despite it’s harms does have some positive aspects such as the guaranteed land and homesteading rights should one end up homeless.

              It’s important that criticism be principled and precise for it to have any meaning. I’d be very interested to hear some of your criticisms that were faced with paragraphs of “denials”.

        • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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          Do you think, perhaps, that there could be a middle ground between “as awful as the US Empire” and “absolutely perfect and must not have any problems spoken about?” Do you think the position “US Empire is awful, China is good but not perfect” can exist, or is that too nuanced?

            • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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              I don’t think anyone has maintained the position that China is perfect on Lemmy.ml. Defending China from overstated or false allrgations does not mean there are no problems, and the existence of problems does not mean most are not being actively worked on.

              • SpicyLizards@reddthat.com
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                2 months ago

                Maybe confronting the conversations is a better thing than denying and finger pointing then? Depends who you want in the conversation though, assuming such a thing is allowed.

                • RiverRock@lemmy.ml
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                  2 months ago

                  denying and finger pointing

                  Literally what the libs are doing constantly in any conversation about countries they’ve been brainwashed to hate. You’re afraid of a real conversation, so you just mentally shut down, repost the same old debunked propaganda for the 500th time, and shout thought-terminating epithet at anyone who dissents. The liberal caricature of communist society is in fact how they themselves enforce ideological compliance.

                • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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                  I see more confrontation of the conversation than not. Denying can be useful for instances where it’s straight up made-up.

            • RiverRock@lemmy.ml
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              2 months ago

              Literally every day. You guys, on the other hand, have to pretend not to see it because actually engaging with actual criticism (like you pretend to care about) would be devastating to your stunted worldview.

              • SpicyLizards@reddthat.com
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                No, I want to see it. I hate the needless wars and aggression. Dictatorships, genocide, ethnicity restrictions, forced labour, natural desolation for coin/convenience, etc.

                No superpowers are immune from committing these crimes.

                It is my mistake to comment on the ml propaganda site though.

                Yes, US is uniquely bad though, but i don’t need to say that, it’s obvious

                • RiverRock@lemmy.ml
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                  No superpowers are immune from committing these crimes.

                  The sad thing about living in the empire built on these crimes is that they are so all-pervasive, it becomes second nature to see them as universal. Like a child born into an abusive family who sees the abuse as normal. Their parents tell them, in between beatings, that anyone who claims not to live this way is lying. The child slips into state of depression, believing that humanity itself is simply like this everywhere. They see no point in striving for better, because better doesn’t exist. When more and more people tell the child that this is wrong, that other people in fact do not live like this, the child may lash out in anger and denial, too afraid to entertain hopeful notions. “There is no alternative” becomes the accepted wisdom. Fear and spite close the curtain on curiosity. The cycle continues.

                • AntiOutsideAktion@lemmy.ml
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                  2 months ago

                  Cynical lip service that isn’t reflected in your actual politics

                  Sweeping declarative statements divorced from any analysis beyond idle chin tapping

                  Crying victim when your hostile shit behavior isn’t fawned over

        • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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          There is no genocide of Uyghurs. Uyghur genocide atrocity propaganda akin to claiming that there’s “white genocide” in South Africa, Christian genocide in Nigeria, or that Hamas sexually assaulted babies in Operation Al-Aqsa Flood.

          In the case of Xinjiang, the area is crucial in the Belt and Road Initiative, so the west backed sepratist groups in order to destabilize the region. China responded with vocational programs and de-radicalization efforts, which the west then twisted into claims of “genocide.” Nevermind that the west responds to seperatism with mass violence, and thus re-education programs focused on rehabilitation are far more humane, the tool was used both for outright violence by the west into a useful narrative to feed its own citizens.

          The best and most comprehensive resource I have seen so far is Qiao Collective’s Xinjiang: A Resource and Report Compilation. Qiao Collective is explicitly pro-PRC, but this is an extremely comprehensive write-up of the entire background of the events, the timeline of reports, and real and fake claims.

          I also recommend reading the UN report and China’s response to it. These are the most relevant accusations and responses without delving into straight up fantasy like Adrian Zenz, professional propagandist for the Victims of Communism Foundation, does.

          Tourists do go to Xinjiang all the time as well. You can watch videos like this one on YouTube, though it obviously isn’t going to be a comprehensive view of a complex situation like this.

          • Poxlox@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            Your poor argumentation shows the cracks in what you claim. You start off with a classic poisoning of the well by your false equivalence of the far right so-called white genocide with PRC’s active suppression and genocide of Uyghur. “vocational programs,” “de-radicalization,” and “rehabilitation” all you use to desensitize us to what is really happening to the people. Just the same as torture apologists using “enhanced interrogation”. Leaked Chinese government documents (the “China Cables,” “Xinjiang Papers”) show are coercive mass detention facilities. Claiming PRC is the best source but yielding its bias is like citing Pravda to debunk Soviet gulags and noting "yes it’s state-aligned, but very thorough."Ridiculous. Your sources do not invalidate multiple independent researchers, satellite imagery, survivor testimony, and leaked internal CCP documents show what is happening to this vulnerable minority group. What’s your response to:

            • The UN’s own 2022 report concluded China’s actions may constitute international crimes
            • Documented forced sterilization, birth rate collapse among Uyghurs
            • The leaked “shoot to kill” orders in the Xinjiang Papers Well, apart from your mod removing dissident for arbitrary reasoning? You can’t claim you want real discourse while doing that. At least own up to your imperial fascist narrative and that you don’t care about truth. You like imperialism when it’s “your guys”.
            • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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              2 months ago

              Your poor argumentation shows the cracks in what you claim. You start off with a classic poisoning of the well by your false equivalence of the far right so-called white genocide with PRC’s active suppression and genocide of Uyghur.

              It isn’t a false equivalence, though. Just like ideas of “white genocide,” western countries often accuse their geopolitical opponents of atrocities, heavily distorting reality in order to make it impossible for the western working class to take an active stance against western imperialism.

              "vocational programs,” “de-radicalization,” and “rehabilitation” all you use to desensitize us to what is really happening to the people.

              This is what was factually happening, though. Prior to the establishment of de-radicalization programs, western-backed terrorist attacks were common, in order to disrupt the Belt and Road initiative (where Xinjiang is key to expanding westward). These included:

              • July 5, 2009: The Urumqi Riots resulted in 197 deaths, and 1700 wounded in mass stabbings.

              • October 28, 2013: Tian’anmen Attack, 5 killed, 40 wouded, when a Jeep was driven directly into crowds.

              • March 1, 2014: Kunming Train Station Attack, 31 killed, 141 wounded. 8 jihadists committed mass stabbings.

              • May 22, 2014: Urumqi Attack, 39 killed, 94 injured as 2 attackers drove cars into crowds and threw explosives at buildings.

              And many more. Since the de-radicalization efforts, these attacks have gone down to effectively 0.

              Just the same as torture apologists using “enhanced interrogation”. Leaked Chinese government documents (the “China Cables,” “Xinjiang Papers”) show are coercive mass detention facilities.

              They don’t, actually. You’re referencing Adrian Zenz, professional propagandist for the Victims of Communism Foundation. He believes he was sent by God to punish China, and his work has been thoroughly discredited.

              Claiming PRC is the best source but yielding its bias is like citing Pravda to debunk Soviet gulags and noting "yes it’s state-aligned, but very thorough.

              I never said the PRC was the best source. Qiao Collective is pro-PRC, they aren’t affiliated with the PRC itself. They are made up of Chinese diaspora in the west. Further, though, I don’t know why anyone would try to debunk the idea that the Soviet Union had prisons. That all being said, China does release white papers like Vocational Training and Education in Xinjiang that document in detail how the program is run. Not listening to the defendent at all in a court case would have you thrown out as clearly unfit to judge.

              Your sources do not invalidate multiple independent researchers, satellite imagery, survivor testimony, and leaked internal CCP documents show what is happening to this vulnerable minority group.

              China already released a massive response to these kinds of claims. Many buildings alleged to be camps were just normal buildings. Witness testemony is about all there actually is, and it’s highly conflicting.

              The UN’s own 2022 report concluded China’s actions may constitute international crimes

              See China’s rebuttal, which eclipsed the UN’s report in size and detail, thoroughly debunking it.

              Documented forced sterilization, birth rate collapse among Uyghurs

              More Adrian Zenz bullshit. This claim comes from Zenz misrepresenting 8.7% of new IUDs as 80%, from this chart:

              Zenz lied about forced sterilization and misrepresented numbers to do so.

              The leaked “shoot to kill” orders in the Xinjiang Papers

              The Xinjiang Police Files are made by the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, a far-right propaganda tank, and again come solely from Adrian Zenz.

              Well, apart from your mod removing dissident for arbitrary reasoning? You can’t claim you want real discourse while doing that. At least own up to your imperial fascist narrative and that you don’t care about truth. You like imperialism when it’s “your guys”.

              I’m not the one relying entirely on the fascist ravings of a Christian Nationalist paid by the US State Department and UK Government to invent lies about China. Have fun taking this back to the Nazi bar you just came from, MeanwhileOnGrad.

            • Artafernes@lemmus.org
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              2 months ago

              Also communists looks like downvoting every anti china comment😒 like just accept that china is bad like USA or russia

              • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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                2 months ago

                You’re getting downvoted because your points have been thoroughly debunked, and we refuse to accept your fantasies as material reality.

            • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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              2 months ago

              I think you should reread my comment and sources, as they already counter that article. Do you think I haven’t read that wikipedia entry already? It’s the first thing people jump to when trying to prove a genocide, despite being full of holes and referencing Adrian Zenz, or sources relying on Adrian Zenz. Have the basic decency to check out the sources I linked.

            • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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              2 months ago

              I’ve already read that article, the sources I linked debunk what’s fake and help contextualize what’s real. You should really do some due dilligence instead of coasting by on Wikipedia, many of the sources in that article link back to made-up claims by Adrian Zenz.

            • RiverRock@lemmy.ml
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              2 months ago

              Fun fact, that Wikipedia page used to be titled “Uyghur Genocide” but they had to change it after it became obvious that no genocide was occurring.

              Anyway, do you acknowledge the white genocide being orchestrated by a shadowy international jewish communist cabal, or are you a genocide denier? Because if a bunch of nazis say it, it must be true.

              Also, name a single non “authoritarian” government. You can’t.

              • Poxlox@lemmy.world
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                I 100% acknowledge all genocides by imperialist authoritarian shitholes unlike you tankies. Every authoritarian government deserves to fail. I notice how your mod removes links to Wikipedia yet you clamor for sources. You do not care for the truth, you are just propagandists for your preferred imperial authoritarian governments if you’re even an organic person and not just some official in the propaganda arm. Enjoy your little bubble, you will never win supporters this way.

                • RiverRock@lemmy.ml
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                  2 months ago

                  Do you acknowledge the totally real white genocide definitely being orchestrated by a shadowy international jewish communist cabal, or are you a genocide denier?

                  Why can’t you answer this simple question instead of freaking out? Are you secretly some kind of tankie?

                  Do you condemn Hamas for beheading 40 babies?

                • davel@lemmy.ml
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                  And off he goes to post on c/meanwhileongrad 😂

                  Edit to add: 1) Wikipedia isn’t a source, dumbass. 2) We’re not the ones in a bubble. Previously:

                  It’s virtually impossible to be in an “echo chamber” when living in a Five Eyes country. Or rather, it’s virtually impossible to not be stuck in the Five Eyes liberal echo chamber. You would have to go full Kaczynski, living in a shack in the woods.

                  As if we weren’t—and aren’t still—exposed to exactly the same life-long indoctrination, education, and propaganda as everyone else in the imperial core. But somehow we, who looked beyond the cultural hegemony in which we’re surrounded, are the ones living in a bubble.

                  Previously:

                  “Genocide denial” isn’t a magic spell. Do you not deny the genocide of white South Africans?

                  Also, do you think we haven’t gone over the Wikipedia entry with a fine-toothed comb already?

                  Previously:

                  The US tried to foment division in China by funding and organizing Salafi terrorist into Xinjiang, and once its efforts failed, it made lemonade out of its lemon by concocting and promoting a genocide narrative.

                  The only countries pushing this narrative are the “always the same mapimperial core countries, which just so happen to be largely the same ones supporting Israel’s genocide.

                  Almost no predominantly-Muslim country buys the Uyghur genocide narrative, because they know it’s bullshit, because they talked to the Uyghurs themselves.
                  https://twitter.com/un_hrc/status/1578003299827171330 #HRC51 | Draft resolution A/HRC/51/L.6 on holding a debate on the situation of human rights in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of #China, was REJECTED.

                  Previously:

                  Genocide is more than just killing, it’s the deliberate destruction of a people including its culture and institutions.

                  (a) Show me the Uyghur bodies

                  (b) Show me the serious bodily or mental harm

                  (c) Show me the conditions calculated to bring about physical destruction in whole or in part

                  (d) Show me the measures intended to prevent births within the group

                  In accordance with China’s affirmative action policies towards ethnic minorities, all non-Han ethnic groups were subject to different laws and were usually allowed to have two children in urban areas, and three or four in rural areas.

                  (e) Show me the forcible transfer of children from one group to another group

                  violent incidents in East Turkestan

                  I wonder where those Salafi terrorists came from? Oh right: the US, UK, and Israel organized, funded, and trained them, as they did Al Qaeda and the various flavors of ISIS/ISIL, including the “moderate rebels” that just took over Syria. The blueprint of regime change operations How regime change happens in the 21st century with your consent.

                • BrainInABox@lemmy.ml
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                  2 months ago

                  Lol. Imagine declaring “Yes, I do believe the Jews are committing white genocide!” And thinking you’re making a compelling argument

  • audrbox@beehaw.org
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    2 months ago

    May I propose: China is probably better for many of its citizens compared to the U.S. and is objectively run by more competent people. The western world is built on mountains of anti-communist and anti-Chinese propaganda that makes discerning the truth about the reality of living there hard for the average westerner who hasn’t actually spent time there. At the same time, absolute power corrupts, and any system that concentrates power into centralized structures is at very high risk of that power being co-opted and abused by counter-revolutionary, power-hungry assholes. Regardless of whether that has happened in China (or any other socialist state), the risk is there, and the way to mitigate it is to dismantle the structures that allow it to happen.