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Italy Joins China's New Silk Road Project

(www.bbc.com)
132 points pseudolus | 1 comments | 23 Mar 19 13:13 UTC | HN request time: 0.399s | source
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outwebbyyou ◴[23 Mar 19 14:59 UTC] No.19470706[source]▶
Hmm. Italy allies with an evil dictatorship that has a concentration camps for millions of minorities, and prosecutes religion by shutting down churches and jailing pastors. Sounds familiar...
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coliveira ◴[23 Mar 19 16:13 UTC] No.19471016[source]▶
The US has allied itself with China since the 80s...
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adventured ◴[23 Mar 19 17:29 UTC] No.19471373[source]▶
The US is not an ally of China. It cooperates with China to maintain peaceful military and political relations in Asia and it has vast trade with China. There's a dramatic, fundamental difference between being an ally and being a global competitor that you try to get along with (ie try not to go to war with as you collide repeatedly on matters of perceived national interest).

Britain, France, Germany, Poland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, Philippines, etc. Those are allies of the US. I don't think there's actually much confusion in the difference between a US ally relationship like Britain and the modern US relationship with China.

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1. coliveira ◴[23 Mar 19 23:54 UTC] No.19473020[source]▶
The difference between being an "ally" of US or not only has to do with its current economic interests. Until recently China was viewed as a big friend. And the US only decided to do something against it when it became clear that China would not allow US companies to control their economy. In the list of US "friends" we see dictatorships like Saudi Arabia and Thailand, and countries with numerous human rights violations such as the Philippines. This is not a great track record for a country that purports to be the champion of democracy around the world.