There’s no doubt that China is following the well trodden path from shoddy copies to high quality goods. Japanese and Korean products were once derided, as has been mentioned. That’s not really the issue. Far more concerning is the oppressive totalitarian nature of the regime. That’s where the danger lies.
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Unfortunately not just. They are increasing their wealth incredibly quickly which in turn creates other massive problems. Look at Japan and South Korea their energy requirements went up exponentially with their new wealth. This doesn’t look any different in China and the pollution that will create really is in another dimension.
They identified the efect on diet long ago and, along with India, formed policies to fill the gap this can create causing great problems to other regions. Also the rest of the world has incorporated this into their planning, essentially Muslim countries have built massive pig farms to profit from the changing Chinese market (and creating health problems along the way).
It’s impossible to grasp the possible effects of China and then India following the paths they are on. It will turn our world upside down at some point I should think.
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Drip drip
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Why should they? It is as much their home as it is home to any other chinese. This is just the Chinese government forcing people to their will
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People flee in the face of prosecution/annihilation, that doesn’t mean they forsake or abandon their country. The Palestinians fled, we Bangladeshis (nearly 10 million of us) did, the Rohingyas have.
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Most people don’t want to leave their home and roots unless they absolutely have no other choice. The Rohingyas, for example, have been in an appalling situation since they were forced out of Burma. Why would you wish that on anyone? Apart from that, the Chinese have such a firm grip that it’s unlikely they would be allowed to leave even if they wanted to. Then there’s the question of where would they go?
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I don’t wish the Uighurs, or for that matter any ethnic groups, to leave their ancestral home.
But like Bangladesh, if leaving the country means survival and an opportunity to fight back, then so be it.
What little information about the abuse is reaching us is absolutely horrifying. If the Uighurs want to stop that, they have to fight back. They can’t do that while staying in the clutches of Beijing.
One may argue that the Tibetans fled but couldn’t fight back. But I would argue that there were other elements at work.
What would the Uighurs achieve by staying and being abused by Beijing???
Right. They are surrounded by countries which are loyal to Beijing. The harsh geography doesn’t help either.
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Does that mean Tom Tugendhat can no longer order from his favourite Chinese takeaway? 
I’m sure he’ll be gutted.
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AN interview that Singapore PM Lee did with BBC did just a few weeks ago. You can see how the interviewer is trying to put pressure on PM Lee to choose a side and I am posting this to highlight exactly how the rest of the world is trying to grapple with the 2 super powers, China and the West are trying to force everyone in between to choose sides and how important it is, personally to me, that we need to have a strong West and a strong China to have a tense but never violent relationship to counter balance each other out with a healthy competition or else everyone else in between and both these super regions will just suffer.
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I’m sorry, but it is not only ‘the West’ that is forcing countries to choose, the Chinese have been doing that for years. Why do you think Taiwan only has diplomatic relations with a handful of countries?
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Errrr…i said China and the West right?
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And I will just say it again what I had said before. Both China and the West think too highly of themselves. Maybe its the narrative that I hear from a very young age, as a small island nation, we want to be friends with everyone, we want to find common benefits rather than differences but it seems China and the West are just bent on doing the opposite. Finding everything to be offended with each other and preferring to see each other as adversaries rather than finding a ground where everyone can benefit.
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China and the West have sharply differing views on basic ideas of governance, freedom, legality, human rights and many other issues, they are also competing for global economic dominance. The stakes couldn’t be higher. We’re talking about the future direction of the human race - politically, socially, morally as well as economically. I wish we could all just get along, but it’s just not realistic under these circumstances. Throughout history the emergence of a new empire has always led to conflict and it’s unlikely to be any different this time. The difference is that now we have superpowers which are capable of completely destroying civilisation.
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Sorry, I misread your post. My bad.
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I can understand what you are saying but I just think that there must be a deliberate attempt from both sides to find the good in each other despite the differences. To bring it to a very macro level, I live just literally next door to a family of new migrants from a very different Asian culture, language, racial background than mine. As much as I see them different from me, they too see me very different from them and just like I find their incense burning flowing into my house irritating at times, I am sure they find it overbearing at times when my mum does the traditional chinese praying stuff. But we both can either find the differences and say, ah there, they are no good because they are this, this and this but instead we all know, me and them can prosper and live in peace if we choose to identify that only by mutual tolerance and understanding of each other’s differences, we can achieve that. Nobody is asking me or them to agree with each other’s practices.
But I absolutely understand and pretty much agree with you, to me, the perfect situation is probably too much to ask of the politicians on both sides.
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Absolutely chilling to anyone who cares about freedom.
1984 becoming reality day by day
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