This is about the perception of a country in other countries. Their internal governmental system is irrelevant for most people. They care about what affects them.
The policies China implements internally rarely have very much negative consequences for the rest of the world. They have been providing the rest of the world with many products of increasing quality. That’s what people notice. A rare exception may be the power they exert over their possession of rare earth metals, but I doubt many people understand what that means. Meanwhile the US’s economy is intertwined with that of many other countries. The international role of the dollar and the hegemony of the US in general mean that the decisions that are made internally affect a lot of other countries. On top of that, people in other countries are reliant on US software and credit card systems that have become increasingly invasive in people’s lives, as well as American streaming services that have enshittified.
The current administration has been actively stabbing their long-time allies in the back, calling them names, burning pacts once made in good faith, climate agreements, etc.
But it’s not just the current administration. Here is a list of wars involving the USA vs. China in the 21st century. Note that the list for China in the 21 century doesn’t exist—they haven’t been fighting any wars. If a country is bombing you or your neighbour you might feel a little worse about said country.
The wars the US causes and especially the shenanigans of this administration are really felt throughout the world. A price increase at the pump is a very tangible result of the mess the US is making of the world at the moment. Meanwhile China is biding their time, being much smarter with soft power. A lot of countries have increased their economical ties with China and are seeing very real progress in their countries, like a train track with new trains that wasn’t there 10 years ago.
Note, I don’t mean to say the regime in China is a particularly good one, but man are they causing less shit for the rest of the world. Some small skirmishes in the South China Sea really don’t make a dent compared to the shit the US is pulling.
More subtle shit for the rest of the world. The US is just now trying to catch up to China in mass survlience and manipulation tech, while China has exporting it for years to get more regimes up to snuff.
Not saying the US hasn’t had large survelence systems, or propaganda, but the Great Firewall still mostly stands as a unique achievement for Chinese authoritarianism, and the US black bagging a major power player that wasn’t totally aligned with the regime would spark a crisis instead of a quite few months.
If I had a choice I’d choose the constant pervasive spy network and manipulation over being bombed, but that is preference on the flavor of evil to me, not on the degree.
Welk yes, but China has been less interested in the data of regular civilians outside of China. Google and the likes have been spying on us all for more than a decade now through the accounts we’ve willingly made with them.
Of course the Chinese are spying on regular people too, but it’s not so much their primary way of making profit as it is for Google.
And like I said: foreign people don’t really care what another country does internally . They care about what affects them: whether their food or their gas is more expensive, whether they can afford to go on vacation, and whether the world feels safe and stable or is a massive powder keg that’s about to blow.
Does it? More than a war that bumps up people prices at the pump almost immediately?
Most people will gladly give their data to big brother, as we’ve seen with Google, Meta, Microsoft and Amazon. But they hate paying more for the same stuff. Apparently gasoline is a big thing, since it’s often a large portion of their budget.
This discussion is also not about what’s worse for people in your or my point of view, but what effects cause the opinion of people to change.
Note, I don’t mean to say the regime in China is a particularly good one, but man are they causing less shit for the rest of the world. Some small skirmishes in the South China Sea really don’t make a dent compared to the shit the US is pulling.
Not saying the US hasn’t had large survelence systems, or propaganda, but the Great Firewall still mostly stands as a unique achievement for Chinese authoritarianism, and the US black bagging a major power player that wasn’t totally aligned with the regime would spark a crisis instead of a quite few months.
If I had a choice I’d choose the constant pervasive spy network and manipulation over being bombed, but that is preference on the flavor of evil to me, not on the degree.
Welk yes, but China has been less interested in the data of regular civilians outside of China. Google and the likes have been spying on us all for more than a decade now through the accounts we’ve willingly made with them.
Of course the Chinese are spying on regular people too, but it’s not so much their primary way of making profit as it is for Google.
And like I said: foreign people don’t really care what another country does internally . They care about what affects them: whether their food or their gas is more expensive, whether they can afford to go on vacation, and whether the world feels safe and stable or is a massive powder keg that’s about to blow.
Its the export of authoritarian tech that effects more countries imho. The slow constant vice of the belt and road too
Boiling pot vs powder keg
Does it? More than a war that bumps up people prices at the pump almost immediately?
Most people will gladly give their data to big brother, as we’ve seen with Google, Meta, Microsoft and Amazon. But they hate paying more for the same stuff. Apparently gasoline is a big thing, since it’s often a large portion of their budget.
This discussion is also not about what’s worse for people in your or my point of view, but what effects cause the opinion of people to change.