[cryoshon]

why is china so frightening to the west as a representative of humankind?

they are imperfect, sure-- their abysmal human rights record will soon be matched by a collapsing xenophobic West.

but they are evidence that humanity can produce contiguous government without overt destruction of rivals even when capable of doing so. they are evidence that humanity can persist in peaceful trade with other civilizations, even if troubled internally.

china is no leader of "the free world" to be sure, but they are far from irresponsible recipients of first contact.... they have no interest in humankind's eradication, and they likely have plans for contact in the exceedingly unlikely chance that it occurs.

[i_am_nomad]

I’m guessing you aren’t Filipino, Indian or Vietnamese.

[user982]

Three nations that have suffered immeasurably more at the hands of the West than of China?

[whatshisface]

Ah, the "greater crime" doctrine. The guilty are free to go, so long as they can prove that the victim had already suffered at someone else's hands. After all, in civil law, only the first transgression counts.

[pdonis]

How do you get "immeasurably more"? The West has been meddling in these countries for maybe a century. China has been doing it for millennia.

[nitwit005]

Even during the wars with the French and Americans, the Vietnamese were quite wary of China. They knew the westerners would leave, but China would always threaten them.

[cryoshon]

correct.

every empire has its victims. the question posed by the OP's article was why not the chinese empire rather than the anglo-american empire as a point of first contact.

in all honesty, i trust the chinese not to fuck up first contact more with a bellicose message, especially given the west's political incapacitation /fall to fascism

[adventured]

> in all honesty, i trust the chinese not to fuck up first contact more with a bellicose message, especially given the west's political incapacitation /fall to fascism

The Chinese have never stopped being routinely bellicose during the CPC era. They annexed Tibet through violence. They're desperate to annex a successful, independent nation - Taiwan - that wants absolutely nothing to do with that. They're willing to use violence to acquire Taiwan as needed. They're currently using bellicose military intimidation and threats to annex an extremely large amount of territory from Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines, Indonesia, Taiwan.

It would be the equivalent of the US routintely threatening to invade Canada to annex Vancouver + Toronto. Then annexing Baja California from Mexico. Then invading Cuba, annexing it and systematically de-Cubanizing the island culturally. Then annexing territorial waters in the Gulf, Caribbean, Pacific and Atlantic from Canada, Mexico and several other Latin American nations.

Show me another nation that has annexed more territory in the last 50 years than China. And they're obviously not done yet.

I've got some further bad news for you. A century of results indicates that Communism is just as bad or worse than Fascism. The overall current human rights position and behavior of the West is radically preferable to that of present day China.

[nasredin]

Why do people have to compare body counts of communist and fascist systems. Yes, I know many if not most people underestimate/do not know the "cost" in lives of Soviet and Chinese communism, but it just seems... wrong to compare how many more millions each one killed than the other.

---

One death is a tragedy, a million is a statistic. (Sorry for butchering the quote)

[aaavl2821]

Just to fact-check here, as I think you are being literal, the "west" is not fascist

[larrykwg]

Most Americans seem to take it for granted, that they are the ones making first contact, that's pretty deeply ingrained in pop-culture. But who builds the biggest super colliders and telescopes the world has ever seen? Anyone but the USA. I think any alien life capable of traveling to us, would stay far away from trump land.

[aaavl2821]

Governments that do not destroy rivals even if capable of doing so and civilizations that can peacefully trade with other civilizations have existed as long as governments and civilizations have existed. China is certainly not the first nor only country to refrain from wanton destruction of other nations or to engage in mutually beneficial trade...