[ninetyninenine]

The U.S. frames its deteriorating relationship with China as a fight for “human rights” and “democracy,” but from China’s perspective, that’s just a cover for a larger campaign to contain its rise. The real issue? The U.S. fears losing global dominance and is using trade wars, tech bans, military encirclement, and financial pressure to slow China down.

China doesn’t want direct military conflict—it prefers economic and technological competition. But it sees the U.S. as a declining power that refuses to accept a multipolar world. The U.S. labels China’s economic expansion “debt-trap diplomacy” while ignoring the IMF’s history of predatory loans. It bans Huawei and TikTok under “security concerns” while engaging in mass surveillance itself. It calls China’s South China Sea claims “aggressive” while surrounding China with military bases.

From Beijing’s view, the U.S. preaches rules it doesn’t follow. Human rights? Washington ignores Saudi Arabia but obsesses over Xinjiang. Democracy? The U.S. supports coups when convenient. Free markets? Only when American firms win.

China isn’t looking for war—it’s playing the long game. The U.S. can try to contain it, but economic gravity favors China’s rise. The more Washington pushes, the clearer its real motives become.

But all this stuff is a bluff. China will spill blood for Taiwan, the US will not. When there is a standoff the US will back down and it's Taiwan getting fucked by everybody.

[127]

Given how US threw Ukraine under the bus, I don't think freedom or democracy are anywhere on the US foreign policy agenda.

In fact, even genocide doesn't really move the needle given the Gaza push.

[DeathArrow]

If bad guys do something, it's bad. If good guys do the same thing, it's good.

[dan_quixote]

You would be an excellent author of history books!

[nthingtohide]

Don't you know if people die from airstrikes done by a Democratic country, they go to heaven while they go to hell in case of Dictatorship. It is very common knowledge.

[amelius]

We don't have slave camps with Uyghurs though.

[OsrsNeedsf2P]

You should take a look at for-profit prisons in the US..

[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penal_labor_in_the_United_St...

[ninetyninenine]

Those were the result of public terrorist attacks on China from domestic terrorists to a scale even larger than 9/11. People were slaughtered and those camps are an immune reaction to that slaughter from China. The media hides this from you.

China did an extreme move here. It’s bad. It’s not slave camps but more education camps or indoctrination camps. It’s forced indoctrination into modern society.

The thing with this is that it destroys cultures and eliminates freedoms but it is largely effective in the long run. Terrorist attacks no longer happen. People are not getting slaughtered by terrorist attacks anymore. Part of the question is which evil do you prefer more? There’s no easy answer. But western propaganda paints only one side of the story here.

Arguably there’s less blood on government hands here for China. The resulting war after 9/11 killed far more innocents than the education camps.

And it’s not just this. When you make progress and societal well being putting it as a priority ahead of individual freedoms you get china building an entire network of rail systems in less then a decade when California can’t even build a single high speed rail in 3 decades because it obstructs some nimbys freedom to have a good view.

[amelius]

OK, but I can't help thinking of this quote:

"The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons."

And the US didn't start camps after 9/11.

[ninetyninenine]

Guantanamo bay man. That’s a camp. They tortured people using something called extraordinary rendition.

Civilization is the same everywhere. Utopia can’t exist because of fundamental aspects of human nature.

I think the real difference between the US and China is that the US is sort of delusional. They hide the truth of themselves and live under a mirage of moral idealism while Chinese people are fully aware of the moral issues with their own government.

A good example is you. You’re well aware of Guantanamo bay and extraordinary rendition. Your delusion just prevents you from thinking about it.

[amelius]

GB has a different scale, afaia, and does not have a genocidal component in that it enprisons specific people and not any people from a certain race/origin.