In a statement, Access Now says it was “told that diplomats from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) were putting pressure on the Government of Zambia because Taiwanese civil society participants were planning to join us in person.”
Ignore for a moment rather this is right or wrong (it’s wrong) but ignore that. THIS is a textbook example of Soft Power. The thing the Trump administration tanked by gutting USAID. The west is still playing old world outdated politics from last century and China is going to leave us and our allies in the dust because of it.
Trump gutting USAID alone isn’t the reason China has so much influence in Africa. The truth is that the West have been exploiting Africa in some way for centuries, and given how much we’ve propped up dictators and bankrupted entire nations, it’s no wonder they’d rather trust China.
China is going to leave us and our allies in the dust because of it.
and its good.
Ignore for a moment rather this is right or wrong (it’s wrong) but ignore that. THIS is a textbook example of Soft Power. The thing the Trump administration tanked by gutting USAID.
You correctly pointed out an example of soft power and how it could be used for evil proposes. USAID also used soft power to the same ends. Therefore Trump did something positive by cutting it down.
This is such a privileged and ghoulish way to justify the deaths caused by the removal of that aid.
the deaths caused by the removal of that aid.
Such as?
You’ll have to provide a better source than just indignation.
One can use power to do good, depends on the person who yields it.
Edit: corrected spelling mistake thanks @Muehe@lemmy.ml
Do you truly believe that the United States used its power for good more than otherwise? More than China?
No I believe it can be used for good. US and China has both done more bad than good.
…is his substitute really better though?
And with that, China essentially hold Africa hostage and would blackmail them to do whatever China wanted. But of course, they do it without bloodshed so tHeY aRE bETteR tHAn tHe wESt
China is just like the west.
I mean literally yes.
And that make it ok?
No, but it makes it better. To understand how much better, the closest comparison on the Western side would be Cuba.
What America does to Cuba is terrible though.
Better never meant good. It means less bad.
You are saying China is equally bad as west when it comes to exploitation of global south and imperialism?
“Better” can be interpreted in more than one way. They’re better at exerting control without violently changing regimes. They’re better at establishing their own infrastructure and ingratiating themselves to the locals (or local governments). Now, I don’t know that everyone loves them there (I heard many side comments from locals about China) but it’s not like they’re scrambling for the Americans, British, or French to come back and overtly oppress them again.
Wait so is achieving the same result with bloodshed preferable?
I know the lives of non-Westerners don’t matter to you but a lack of bloodshed kinda makes a world of difference, lol.
Yes because psychological abusive partner is way better than physically abusive parter.
I’m a non-westerner. Next you gonna tell me woman don’t exists on the internet.
More like we’re the abusive ex, complaining about the ex’s next partner. We raped and pillaged Africa for 500 years. Now China is treating them much better by comparison, and we’re shit talking from the sidelines freaking out because we are narcissists who can’t stand anyone being happy without us
Treating better by comparison is NOT the same as treating well.
What is this “sins of our fathers” bullshit you’re spouting? It’s possible to condemn Western AND Chinese exploitation of Africa.They are supplying them with weapons to kill civilians. China is absolutely garbage just like the US or EU.
The CCP is so terrified of that little island.
Not the island itself but what America/the West turned it into: an unsinkable aircraft carrier (quoting general MacArthur here). But the days of Western imperialism might just be over, or at least that seems to be the way things are going, so I assume that island and mainland China will be just fine in the near future.
That island contains the true government of China and the CCP will do whatever they can to hold onto power so I don’t think they’ll be fine until one destroys the other.
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liberls will obviously support fascist.
Stupid take. By this metric the true government of the US are the confederates.
You think the Taiwan wants to keep slaves?
That’s a dumb take why would Taiwan want slaves?
Did you just get self-trolled?
Can you point to the region where the Confederate government retreated to after the American civil war and remains in power to this day?
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I get what you’re implying but it’s not factually correct in this case. The Confederacy was dissolved after it lost the civil war, there’s no continuity with any of those state governments.
Living in the Deep South: my ass. Even Operation Paperclip was modified off what the US did with the Confederate scum: placed them in government and other positions of power and influence.
Sherman should have burned it all and salted the earth, besides.
Its not true government, no one recognizes it and they lost the civil war fair and sqaure, its only matter of time when CPC reunifies China.
I mean I’m no fan of the CCP either but there’s likely not much fear involved here. It’s basically an ego project, not unlike Cuba on the other side.
This is the second comment that I’ve seen where you compare to Cuba. Are you saying what China is doing is ok because America fucked over Cuba?
Nope. In my other comment I was saying that both are bad but America is worse; here I’m trying to say that both are ego projects, and therefore that the CCP’s treatment of Taiwan doesn’t imply fear any more than America’s treatment of Cuba does. No real relation between the two comments except using the same comparison of how either powerful empire treats its pet rebellious province. For the record I think mainland China should leave Taiwan the fuck alone.
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Anything unusual going on at the time of that pretty graph which might have an impact on global trade? In any case, this doesn’t seem relevant to why the CCP is quaking in their boots at tiny Taiwan and exerting the kind of pressure described in the article.
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Moreso, before the West brought back the issue in the mainstream, regular travel between China and Taiwan could be made relatively easily.
Ofcourse the losers of civil war shouldnt get to hold a territory as hostage with american bases there lol
One hegemony replaced by another.
Wow, this discussion went off the rails right quick. 😄😄
Xi’s $0.50 Army is fast approaching.
One china policy in action
For real, lived in China for 5 years, it’s the most racist country I’ve been to. They even discriminate people from where they’re from in the country, it’s nuts.
Can you imagine if the US started a legit government backed operation in 2026 called One US Policy and forced everyone be “white” Christians? And I don’t mean suggestions, they FORCED you to do it. It would be world news about how the US is racist and whateverist ect. China? Nah it’s cool they’re just “unifying”.
do you know Taiwan is a settler colonial state that massacred thousands of native Taiwanese people when KMT fled there after getting brutally mogged by Chairman Mao?
Also I dont think you know what one china policy is.
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american concentrationcamps 😡
chinese concentrationcamps ☺️
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they r both bad. its not that hard to comprehend brother
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closed for six fucking years now
Is that cause they got the job done or…? 😂
Tell me you’ve never been to china without telling me you’ve never been to china.
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LOL!
Nah, I’m tough, I can handle it. (Just sometimes wish we could downvote in here.😉)
most instances have downvoting
some instances such as lemmy.blahaj.zone disable downvotes
the ability to downvote and see downvotes is a good thing and i will die on this hill
I like some apps like voyager let you see only up, sum of up and down, or split. The combined one is pretty good to ignore the one or two down but still see when something is massively down.
“Paywall” stopped by pressing ESC.
<I hope somebody copied what was here>
At some point we’ll be talking about the US military actions to “protect Taiwan”. I just want you to remember this comment when that happens.
Like, whatever you think about China, it really doesn’t matter. These stories are only here to serve as a means to manufacture consent for US actions in the future.
It’s for more war. Just like Iran. Just keep that in mind as we push further into the next world war. No one writing articles like this cares about the “digital rights conference” and you don’t either.
If you cared about “digital rights” or any “rights” you’d be refusing to go to work until the genocidal pedophiles in your own government were brought to justice. You don’t care.
These stories are only here to serve as a means to manufacture consent for US actions in the future.
These stories are here to remind that there is an elephant in the room. Fortunately it’s only breathing loudly at the moment.
China has territorial ambitions regarding several neighbours (sea areas) and serious ambitions about Taiwan (taking it over) and unless the international community can help Taiwan and other countries achieve a peaceful co-existence with China (and this means backing them)…
(note: air raid simulations with 100+ aircraft testing Taiwan’s responses or naval blockade simulations with tens of warships around the island are not peaceful coexistence, and China has been running such exercises)
…then we better start learning how to make microchips in every country and obviously pay for that. Because if war happens, Taiwan will be in ruins and China under a boycott, possibly with a few strategic locations also in ruins - and the rest of the world in a severe economic crisis due to lack of microchips. There is also nonzero risk of China attempting to conquer Taiwan escalating to a bigger war between coalitions of countries, with all the possible consequences.
If someone is bullying someone else, the wider community wold be wise to intervene early and dissuade agression.
So yes, what we are seeing is a prelude, which will likely lead, if not dissuaded, to agression against Taiwan at some day in future. What the rest of the world thinks about on that day, is not yet determined. The US and Japan and South Korea have previously made fairly clear what they will think, but recently the US is running headless.
I think Europe’s best hope regarding Taiwan, is to establishing a EU-NATO partnership where Europe protects Taiwan, getting military chips in return. If Europe doesn’t do that, the only good alternative is to develop their own chip technology to at least equal China.
Another possibility is India protecting Taiwan. India isn’t friendly with China, and being able to have top-end technology would very much help India in the decades to come. There is much soft and practical power to having the chips.
Johnny Harris? Is that you? I hope the CIA is paying you at least.
Who is Johnny Harris? You can find me here. Once you figure out the agency who pays me, tell me too, I’ll go and cash in then. :)
In return for the quesiton, I will ask you - which news sources do you use?
Ah I get. Johnny Harris is a popular YouTuber that once worked with the CIA (obviously still does) that does a lot of “China is a concern” content. He’s a typical US imperialism supporting liberal. Basically says the exact type of shit from your first comment.
You know what the difference between a liberal and an anarchist is?
The former actually gets paid to spread CIA talking points about China. I guess you’re just the later. Sorry, I’m sure you understand why I would have been confused. It’s so hard to tell the difference between neocon liberals and “China is a threat” anarchist these days.
Reminder: every large centralized state - not just China - is a threat, especially if it has no democracy, an easy-to-manipulate democracy, or a democracy standing on its last legs.
Looks at instance
.ml
Yeah checks out
Got owned
Looks at instance
.ml
Yeah checks out
$1.6 Billion of our tax dollars spent on an influence campaign. https://www.congress.gov/index.php/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/7476/text But sure, its a .ml conspiracy /s
I sure hope you were paid to read that, because why else would you waste your time following a 700 page bill that hasn’t been passed yet? At a glance it isn’t about astroturfing, it’s about sanctioning and charging melign actors as criminals, plus a whole ton of stuff from monetary policy to IP protections. It’s basically outlining the entire geopolitical strategy towards China, which is probably why it’s spent over a year being bounced around 20 different subcommittees.
Idk where you got that price tag seeing as the link you provided contains no budgeting information, but you should ask your handler if that figure is for the entire bill, or for an “influence campaign” specifically. While you wait to hear back from them for that talking point, would you mind showing me where in the bill this influence campaign is outlined?
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That’s so true almighty knower of politics. Please show me where your knowledge comes from in the above link. You’ll find the document is organised into many numbered and lettered sections, so just let me know which section supports this guys unfounded assertion about a $1.6 billion budget for an “influence campaign”.
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See now that’s a lie, because you implied that guy knows his politics, which is a positive claim that turns on the authenticity of his claim. Now you’re running away from it because it’s increasingly clear he doesn’t know shit and you look like a sock for defending him.
Maybe you should change your original comment to “spreading lies about politics means you’re paid to do so” which isn’t really what I said either, but would at least be close enough to avoid looking completely illiterate.
Caring about stuff isn’t a binary, it doesn’t hinge on whatever insane purity test you think it does.
You can care about things. But, honestly, when you read an article do you never ask yourself “why am I reading about this and who wants me to think this important?”
Like, let’s not use China. A lot of people have a hard time with it. Take for example “trans woman in sports”. The conservative brain might be very concerned about this. Why? Do they play sports? Have they even met a trans person? No. But they are told that this is a very important thing. They convince themselves that it’s important to their lives.
Now, you (I hope) and I know these types of stories are just forms of manufacturing outrage to direct blame away from the real problems with American society.
That’s what I’m talking about in my initial comment. It’s just not Trans kids in sports. It’s some thing China is doing related to their relations with Taiwan.
Now, the problem is, you don’t think “why am I reading about this? Who wants me to care about this?”
You start asking yourself those questions when you read any articles about any of the US “enemies” in global politics. You’ll start to see the manufacturing of your concent for more war funding everywhere ; you’ll see it as obviously as the “trans kids in sports” is to you today.
I find this pearl clutching over manufactured consent highly obnoxious and borderline archaic. The days of top-down narratives fueled by restricted access are laughably simple compared to the fractured global media ecosystem of today.
Whatever opinions planted in the mind by manufactured consent are dwarfed a thousand-fold by internet echo chambers that owe no allegiance to the state. To be clear I do not think they cannot align with state interests, only that alignment is selfish, non-ubiquitous across vast swathes of the media landscape, and not the result of a power imbalance in favour of the state.
Unless you want to conflate the two in which case I would ask whether you think the .ml instance “manufactures consent” against support of western interests.
Ironically enough, China is one of the few places where manufactured consent is still able to be effective because of the authoritarian stranglehold they maintain on their media by banning access to outside sources and replacing them with state sanctioned alternatives. Same with Iran, Russia, North Korea, etc. It’s weird ml’s complain about manufactured consent while simping for countries that do it more than anywhere else.
Don’t forget the US invades countries, steal their oil, kill their children, bring the world in the brink of bankruptcy. But no. China bad. How many countries has China invaded this decade vs that shining beacon of freedom and democracy?
But the article doesn’t have anything to do with the United States? On its surface your comment seems like whataboutism? Could you explain your position a little bit more?
if you’re going to be the best
be the best you can be
China can’t even kill the Uyghurs properly.
Ask Vietnam or any of their SE Asian neighbors how peaceful China is. China murders quite a few VN civilians every year and destroys fishing and oil/mineral ships regularly.
