| Really? Censorship? And here in the US, people are trying to circumvent censorship too. So what? Doesn't mean we are going to side with china over the US. Also, there have been articles of china's demise for decades now. If you enjoy cringe, look up gordon chang and read some of his stuff. But I agree with you about nobody wanting to be kept under anyone's heel. Do you know any chinese history? Do you know whose heel's they think they've been under for 200 years? The west's heel. Nationalism and economic growth is how the chinese government maintains power and I don't see that changing anytime soon. As for the "concentration camps", I'm guessing the support depends on how it is framed. If the chinese government frames it as punishing separatist terrorists, I'm betting it will have as much support as japanese internment had in the US. Also, the authoritarian communist party is their government whether you like it or not. Considering the economic growth that china has experienced, I'm betting the party and the government has enormous support amongst the population. And in any confrontation with a foreign government, the people almost always rally around their government - authoritarian or not. Finally, "some" in china might want their government to "bend to the sanctions", but I'm guessing the vast majority of chinese don't. Also, historically, governments tend to fall when they appear weak, especially in relation to a foreign power. Also, you are conveniently ignoring the fact that there are "some" in the US who think we should "bend to their sanctions". If you think that chinese people are going to side with a foreign government against their own ( authoritarian or not ), then you really don't know history or human nature. |
I don't know what you're talking about; the US is the least-censored country on earth. You can't even pull provable, inflammatory falsehoods off of Facebook without people crying censorship here (which is its own problem).
> there have been articles of china's demise for decades now
I'm not talking about its demise. Quite the opposite. I'm talking about its people being smarter and more worldly than they get credit for, despite president Xi's very best efforts to the contrary. It has academics who are regularly imprisoned for criticizing the government and advocating for personal liberty. Scores of people cheat around the latest propaganda app (https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/07/world/asia/china-xi-jinpi...). People use GitHub, for lack of better options, to exercise some small amount of free speech (https://www.npr.org/2019/04/10/709490855/github-has-become-a...).
There's a will. Chinese people don't want this kind of country. Many of them have just given up fighting it. We could help.
> I'm betting it will have as much support as japanese internment had in the US
Japanese internment has been looked back upon as one of the greatest human rights transgressions the U.S. has ever committed. It wasn't at the time, of course, but that can't be helped. It's also beside the point. I'm not saying "America is good and China is bad". I'm only saying, Xi's ruling party is bad. America has done some bad things too. It's still doing some bad things, like what's happening at the southern border.
Maybe what you don't grasp is that Americans are free to criticize their own government. We can have our own sets of values. I have a pretty low view of my own country right now. That doesn't mean I can't also point out China's problems and America's opportunity to do something about them. Of course, I also have very little faith in my government to take that kind of opportunity right now.