[statuslover9000]

For example, China operates 1 foreign military base, in Djibouti. How many do you think the U.S. has in the South China Sea alone?

Beyond that, how many people has China killed in foreign military conflicts in the past 40 years? How many foreign governments have they overthrown?

Instead of all this, they’ve used their resources not only to become the world’s economic superpower but also to lift 800 million people out of poverty, accounting for 75% of the world’s reduction during the past 4 decades. The U.S. has added 10 million during that same time period.

[8note]

why use 40 years as the example? its a pretty convenient framing to exclude the foreign governments its toppled. eg. tibet.

the government in exile remains the government in exile.

youd have some standing if china dropped control over its imperial holdings, rather than pretend theyre part of china

[statuslover9000]

First off, I consider the post-Mao / starting with Deng era of Chinese government to be the most relevant when considering who they “are” as a country now.

However, I’d still maintain that before that, China’s foreign policy was more focused on maintaining territorial sovereignty against the threat of Western imperialism vs. focused on expansion or foreign influence: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_foreign_relations_o...

Meanwhile, the entire territory of the U.S. is predicated on one of history’s largest genocides, and a consistently expansionary foreign policy on top of that.