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by cscurmudgeon 1011 days ago
The world treated them well.

> Read a bit about british opium wars

Sinophiles bellyache about the opium war but conveniently forget recent history.

Read about events during WW2: The US supported China in WW2 which happened much recently than the opium wars.

Read about events after WW2: The US/West gave China economic prosperity through asymmetric deals that decimated the Western middle class while China continued to grow at the expense of the West (through unfair trade deals, outright theft, flagrant violations of international labor and pollution standards, etc.).

Instead of a fake humility, I really wish people read more.

Only so long till China can rent seek from the world before the world says no.

It is not just the West that has an issue with China. India, Philippines, Vietnam, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan all have issues. Last time I saw a map, they were not in the West.

1 comments

There are very few actual sinophiles in the western-aligned democracies, and I sure as hell ain't one of them, I have no stake in US-China hate wars. This is not some Trump rally where ad hominem attacks end any discussion and you triumphally ride to sunset.

The only reason west gave them work was they were so brutally cheap, and people simply didnt care why. Even if quality was lacking. It was west doing its own shooting in its own foot, everybody knew what kind of deal they get with China, but greed and immediqte profits overshadowed everything else. Dont blame stupidity on anybody but stupid.

They set the rules on their own soil and followed through, nothing more. No big fan of them, but instead of childish demonizing which got us nowhere in past 2 decades, what about smarting up a bit and understanding both sides and what led up to this situation.