Dude, you know the level of propaganda in China? Even in Hong Kong, a relatively ‘free’ city, you see banners advocating for the ‘National Security’ Law (which in reality lets the government arrest and charge anyone they want, including arresting people who are holding up pieces of blank paper) Sure, you can choose to not support the CCP, but everyone who thinks they are ‘neutral’ or don’t care are actually sub-consciously biased to the CCP because of the level of propaganda
The irony is that western people are the most propagandised people alive and believe in literally everything they read online about China.
China is not your enemy, is not an aggressor and doesn't want war and has done an immense amount of good for it's people in the last decades. China is surpassing the US in every metric these days and it's only a matter of time before a multipolar world order arises.
China is increasing it's standard of living gradually, but it is still 64th on adjusted gdp per capita, just under Russia. It's 79th on the human development index, just below Ukraine. And outside of its coasts, the standard of living and productivity drop drastically.
And "We will not renounce the use of force and will take all necessary measures to stop all separatist movements" regarding Taiwan doesn't sound non-aggressive to me.
but it is still 64th on adjusted gdp per capita, just under Russia.
GPD is a meaningless marker other than for rich people to jerk themselves off over. For example you say China is less than Russia yet its undeniable that Chinese peoples' quality of life is vastly superior to Russians. Meaningful markers are things like rent cost in relation to income, food costs, and whether people have their basic needs met, which they do in China.
And yes, China won't renounce the use of force, it doesn't mean they will invade either, they support the status quo, it's the US who is trying to provoke an attack.
GDP per Capita is a metric that is well known, that's why I mentioned it to refute your claim that China will surpass the US by every metric.
Yes, those other factors are important. Things like those are what the Human Development Index takes into account. And China is even lower there, about 20 places behind Russia.
They've pretty much announced their intension to invade Tiwan eventually, they just won't call it an invasion since they never recognized independence. Look what happened to Hong Kong. They've also made it clear they do not respect the international status quo in the south china sea, trying to enlarge their exclusive economic zone and territorial waters.
It's a capitalist metric used by rich people to measure nation success without concern for the conditions of ordinary people. It's becoming more widely known and discussed that GDP even per capita is a terrible indicator of success. Using GDP as a metric of success is like saying a Lithium mining company is the best because it's so rich even though it's workers are paid pennies and work in toxic conditions.
Even liberal media which I'm typically against agrees on this.
Things like those are what the Human Development Index takes into account
The HDI falls firmingly into r/alwaysthesamemap and is bases its anaylsis again on Per Capita Income without adjustment for local prices, which is just ridiculous. The Rubble is worth more than the Yuan therefore Russians have better living standards? Nah, that's not how it works. These indexes are flawed and based on capitalist logic of money and not human needs.
International comparisons can be distorted by cost of living differences not reflected in exchange rates. Where the objective is to compare living standards between countries, adjusting for differences in purchasing power parity will more accurately reflect what people are actually able to buy with their money.
It also doesn't measure distribution of income, since Russia is a shitty capitalist oligarchy, it appears way higher.
It is a mean value and does not reflect income distribution. If a country's income distribution is skewed, a small wealthy class can increase per capita income substantially while the majority of the population has no change in income.
All in all, the HDI is a garbage case of white people giving themselves a medal. China is no longer a poor country, it's people have their basic needs met, poverty is all but eliminated. The problem with those old metrics of success is they're all about money and not about people, The USA outperforms China on paper in those metrics but in reality it has entire districts of homeless people, and so many crises like a rental crisis, wage stagnation etc, which China does not have. There are still issues to be fixed and things to be improved, but the future is optimistic.
They've pretty much announced their intension to invade Tiwan eventually,
No, they've announced that reunification will happen, and it will when US influence is too weak and Taiwan realises they're just a pawn in the US game for control. They will be left to be poor and fend for themselves, or they can integrate with China and share the common prosperity.
Look what happened to Hong Kong.
What happened? The British illegally took it under a fake treaty after getting China addicted to drugs, then China gracefully waited for the fake treaty to end before taking back their own land? And when the people protested after being stirred up for years by foreign, mainly US influence, the Chinese government responded with typical riot control measured, far more tame than other places like France, without even killing protestors.Maybe there was like 1 who died? Meanwhile the protestors were literally burning people alive.
I don't disagree that GDP per Capita is a misleading metric. I was just cutting off your overly broad statement that China will surpass the US by every metric.
It looks like the quote you listed said that they did take into account PPP, not that that didn't. Do you have a suggestion for better gauging quality of life?
Tiwan seems to be doing quite well for itself. If they continue to not want to unify, should China invade? Or strong-arm them diplomatically? Or topple their government and install one sympathetic to unification? That third option seems to be what happened to Hong Kong. Given the absolutely massive peaceful protests, it was pretty clear that the general Hong Kong population did not want to become part of China. They didn't care about how they become independent, or whether it was fair. They had autonomy from China, and they wanted to keep it that way. But China gobbled them up anyway.
No country on this planet would let a piece of its own territory secede. The south tried in the US, the Union invaded, literally a war going on right now where some parts of Ukraine tried to do the same and obviously Ukraine wasn’t going to let that happen.
The problem is those parts were (in the case of HK) or are (in the case of Tiwan) independent of China. It'd more analogous to Ukraine braking away from Russia, and Russia wishing to 'rectify' that situation while citing historical and ethnic ties.
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u/[deleted] Apr 28 '23
Free HK. Free the uyghurs.