[Teever]

This isn't totally accurate.

You are correct that China cannot project power in the sense that they can't easily invade a country or level shattering economic sanctions but they have proven themselves quite capable of targetting individuals in other nations both online and in the real world.

Either way, there is a moral imperative to prevent China from gaining the ability to project power the way the US can. The US being able to project that kind of power is shitty, and the two entities being able to do that is even shittier.

[jrochkind1]

I appreciate that you recognize the US being able to do it is shitty.

I wonder how many non-Americans think two entities being able to do it is better than one, because at least they can counter-balance each other.

Not just with force; I was recently thinking about how the US during the cold war tried to be "nice" to the "third world" to keep them out of the "sphere of influence" of the Soviet Union. Currently China is trying to project it's "soft power" that way too to get less developed countries into it's patronage, but the US isn't really doing that at the moment (see for instance approaches to distributing covid vaccine...).

I (who is a usa citizen) personally am not really sure which is preferable, only one super-power, or two. Either way the world is in for a rough ride.

[artificialLimbs]

Let me assure you, Chinese power is BAD. And I personally hate using that word, but here it is warranted.

At least in the U.S., we have the intent of moral fiber permeating through our founding document, and probably at least half the population still fervently believes in these principles or tries to behave as though they matter.

China doesn't give a fuck. Their government is a communist dictatorship, and their sole concern is the expansion of their power through force.

[krageon]

> in the U.S., we have [...] moral fiber

It's so hard to take you seriously when you make claims like this. Nobody cares about your founding documents, folks look at what the US does. And what it does is send drone strikes to hit schools, it bullies countries into doing what it wants without offering anything in return, etc. I genuinely cannot currently see a worse superpower.

[artificialLimbs]

We also invented air conditioning and cars and airplanes and refridgerators and the internet. Global poverty is at a historic low right now. Violent crime, at least here in the U.S., is at an all time low.

With gratitude as a dominant force in ones's life, one is able to step back and see pictures other than what one wishes to see. One is able to stop buying into hysteria.

It is sad that some politicians use military as their play tool for nefarious purposes. Biden sent troops into Syria almost immediately upon assuming his current position. Reprehensible.

[a0-prw]

The main reason global poverty is at a historic low is that China has lifted a record number of people out of extreme poverty. On the other hand, the Middle East has become more impoverished, especially in Yemen and Syria, where the US has been instrumental in destabilization: "These numbers confirm a downward trend in poverty rates in East Asia and the Pacific, reducing the poverty headcount ratio at the international poverty line from 2.1% in 2015 to 1.0 % in 2019, driven by decreases in poverty in China and the Philippines. In contrast, spurred by the conflicts in Yemen and Syria, the Middle East and North Africa region has seen a sharp reversal, with the poverty rate increasing from around 2.1% in 2013 to 4.3% in 2015 and 7% in 2018." Source: https://blogs.worldbank.org/opendata/march-2021-global-pover...

[jrochkind1]

> With gratitude as a dominant force in ones's life, one is able to step back and see pictures other than what one wishes to see. One is able to stop buying into hysteria.

But... this doesn't apply to looking at China, only to looking at the US, for some reason?

This is a very confusing conversation, you seem to be switching the parameters of what we're talking about.

We started out talking about the general dangers of a superpower in the world, especially to people not citizens of that superpower. Is that still what we're talking about? Are the purported invention of air conditioning or the internet in the US relevant to that conversation? Is "gratitude as a dominant force in one's life" relevant to it? How does "gratitude as a dominant force in your life" effect your view of China? How should it effect the view of someone in a country getting significant investment or foreign aid (or cough vaccines) from China? Are you asking us to have a different attitude toward evaluating the danger of the US as a superpower to the rest of the planet vs evaluating the danger of China as a superpower to the rest of the planet? With one we should center gratitude and avoid hysteria, but with the other we should.... center hysteria and avoid gratitude?

[jrochkind1]

Few people outside the US believe the US is concerned internationally with anything other than the expansion of power. So that might mean something.

[belatw]

That “intent of moral fiber permeating through our founding document” failed to do achieve much good for the the peoples of Yemen, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Cuba, Vietnam, African slaves, or Native Americans.

Those who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.

[k12sosse]

When it's just the US, AXIS powers lose. When it's China too, the world loses.