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Protester shot in chest by live police round during Hong Kong protests

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628 points nodea2345 | 5 comments | 01 Oct 19 11:19 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source
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loquor ◴[01 Oct 19 16:03 UTC] No.21126953[source]▶
This might sound alarmist, but do you think China is the biggest upcoming global problem after climate change? For two reasons:

1. China has a totalitarian ruling system. They intend to realize George Orwell's 1984.

2. Present-day China essentially has no ethics. Take the US in comparison. No matter how perverse the people in power become and even if they do messed up things, the US has some founding morals and principles they do not forget. China, in comparison, systematically rooted out these values since the Great Leap Forward. The happenings at Hong Kong and Xinjiang epitomize that.

I do think China's expansionist policy bodes poorly for all of humanity.

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baddox ◴[01 Oct 19 16:34 UTC] No.21127399[source]▶
What policies does China have which are expansionist?
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1. magduf ◴[01 Oct 19 16:41 UTC] No.21127496[source]▶
Wanting to take over Taiwan, and trying to take over the South China Sea by building artificial islands and using them as military bases, for starters.
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2. jmknoll ◴[01 Oct 19 16:50 UTC] No.21127612[source]▶
To add to that:

Wars of aggression against two neighboring countries (Vietnam and India) in the past 50 years, active territorial disputes with basically every other significant country nearby. The creation of client states like which are then used to undermine stability (North Korea), or to undermine international organizations (Cambodia and ASEAN).

3. mytailorisrich ◴[02 Oct 19 14:02 UTC] No.21136523[source]▶
> Wanting to take over Taiwan,

This is as expansionist as the American Civil War... I.e. it's not expansionist but really a 'domestic' matter.

There is big amount of propaganda from Western media on this topic as well: If Taiwan had been in a position to fight the communists to retake the mainland the US would have supplied help and call this 'liberation' of the mainland. But of course any plan of the communists to complete the takeover of the country by getting their hands on Taiwan is labelled 'expansionist' and 'a threat to security and stability'.

Same old games...

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4. unethical_ban ◴[02 Oct 19 15:23 UTC] No.21137443[source]▶
The difference being one side is evil and the other isn't so much.

The Chinese government, the CCP and everything they stand for regarding liberty and freedom of thought and expression is against the fundamental values of the West. The ideas are not equal in value. China is wrong. Oppression of thought is wrong. Incarceration without trial is wrong.

The US and other countries don't get it right all the time, but at least our citizens have the expectation of rights the Chinese can only dream of.

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5. mytailorisrich ◴[02 Oct 19 15:32 UTC] No.21137543{3}[source]▶
Every time people have to argue to counter the hard reality, which I described in my previous comment, they try to clutch at straws by trying to convince themselves that China is "evil" or "wrong"... This is a feeble argument.

Moreover, even if we accept that China is evil and wrong, some of the best 'friends' of the West are at least as evil and wrong, if not more, as China, which should really finish off this line of argumentation.

This is self-interest among states, standard geopolitics, there is not right or wrong, including when it comes to determining the US' foreign policy.