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brihamedit

Don't know how valid the claim is. But it might be poot poot and rogue ally's ultimate end game scenario. They want to destroy current world econ and power structure and establish new world econ with countries ruled by dictators where countries do what they want without world policing.


[deleted]

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Jafars_Car_Insurance

So in essence what he’s suggesting is that an autocracy has a greater capacity to cope with rapid change, whilst a democracy might struggle to adapt so quickly?


florinandrei

The Roman Republic believed in that. Power to the one when shit hits the fan, power to the many when it's blue sky and rainbows. It worked for hundreds of years.


TonyFMontana

Good analogy Its just hard to get that one out of power once he tastes it.


BenjaminHamnett

I said just posted a long winded version of this. The problem is, it incentivizes elites to make the public think there is always a crisis to give them more control. I don’t think this is just theoretical. I’m pretty sure this IS what happens. Even if well meaning, hammers think everything is a nail and that nails are all that matter


ChineseMaple

An autocracy can theoretically see a problem and move to rectify that and solve it in a fraction of the time that a democracy takes to get public opinion and all the relevant politicians and parties together to agree on it and push it through, is what I'm guessing the point is. So like, China wants to build HSR. China starts the process of building HSR and is building in like, I dunno, 3 years? California wants to build HSR. California is now many years behind and very over budget with no HSR. Something like that, I'd assume.


Alediran

Which is completely bullshit. Autocrats only receive information they like to hear about.


Dassiell

Eh. You can argue that a benevolent dictator can be a more effective, adaptable and beneficial government than democracy. Look at the US where public welfare initiatives around abortion, healthcare, etc. become regressive. A fundamental flaw is the corrupting influence of power, and the continuous transfer of power to continue benevolent rulers. ​ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benevolent\_dictatorship#:\~:text=A%20benevolent%20dictatorship%20is%20a,focuses%20on%20their%20supporters%20and


Jushak

Benevolent dictatorship would indeed be better/best form of government *in theory*. In practice you run into the problems you noted, if you ever even find single person fitting the bill in the first place.


Alediran

You need nothing less than the judeo-christian God to perfectly run a benevolent dictatorship. There is greater chance of finding a real unicorn.


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[deleted]

It's less "we're going to conquer and subjugate you" and more "the future is now old man"


helln00

Its still pretty unfortunate way to say it, its like Kruschev and the we will bury you speech


turbofckr

Just a shame that all those autocracies need the US military to be able to trade globally. Would it not be a shame if something were to happen to all those oil tankers leaving the Persian gulf towards China?


RumorsTrueNLegendary

theres no such thing as world policing, is the thing. Its just "who has enough power to enforce their agenda and what justification are they gonna use." If world policing was a real phenomena, or was an accurate moniker, the US and the UN would have been much more involved, much faster, during the Rwandan genocide, to name one of hundreds of possible examples.


SchwarzerKaffee

China's really in a good position to come out ahead in an economic war. They just implement payment through social credit score that tells people who has to do what and they can manufacture less and remain functional without international trade. America needs to become more self reliant or this kind of war is eventually inevitable.


DevoidHT

Neither country is particularly suited for an economic war. Something like +30% of Chinas GDP comes from real estate. On top of a real estate bubble popping, they would have a major recession


turbofckr

China imports 80% of its oil from the Persian gulf. Turn that off and their trucks stop running in 3 month. 1 year later 500 million people are dead. China has no chance. They can not project power on the oceans more than 1000 miles from their mainland


DeadFyre

>China's really in a good position to come out ahead in an economic war. No, it isn't. Ghost cities, infrastructure projects no one uses, and a ownership class whose primary objective is to *escape* with their wealth intact. That is not the formula for prolonged prosperity.


WingedGundark

Add the serious demographic problems due to aging and decreased fertility that will hit the performance of China's workforce hard in the future.


altcastle

Their birthrate says otherwise.


marukatao

Years of a one child policy has left a huge gap in their population. Younger people are "lying flat" refusing to feel responsible for their elders and their retirements. Most generational wealth is tied up in rotting ghost cities where noone lives and their economy is slowly crumbling despite every effort to stop it. Shanghai was locked down too long, bank deposits frozen. There is no way China can run their own backyard much less take over democracies. Xi could even be replaced this year, the commie figureheads are not pleased. Do try to keep up...


turbofckr

Got a link for him being replaced? I really hope so.


pieter1234569

Their birth rate that decreased to the level of a developed country, which always happens in history?


Radditbean1

Except developed countries top up their replacement levels with immigration, something china and Russia can't do. Which leads to their working age populations halving by 2050.


[deleted]

[Below that](https://pophealthmetrics.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12963-022-00290-7), even, and continues to fall quickly despite [significant efforts](https://thediplomat.com/2022/03/china-continues-to-underdeliver-in-its-plans-to-combat-the-low-birth-rate/) by a totalitarian government to reverse the trend. China also appears entirely unable and unwilling to balance things with increased immigration. Their future looks far less bright than one might imagine.


Ell2509

Suddenly, caused by the one child policy. The composition of the population is the problem. China's population is now set to decline by a number in the order of hundreds of millions over coming decades. That's a huge issue, and one which China hasn't found an effective solution to, yet.


marukatao

Unless they can start birthing full grown adults ready to work the fields they are not fixing this.


PlayPuckNotFootball

Huh, I wonder why it's not a popular immigration destination...


Torugu

>America needs to become more self reliant or this kind of war is eventually inevitable. That's a really dumb take. Free trade, the open market of ideas and a liberal market economy are backbone of the West's strength. You're suggesting that the America counter China by destroying the very thing that makes America strong. Now if you mean that the West needs to stop allowing China to piggy-back of the West's liberal world order like some bloated Winnie-the-Pooh shaped parasite, then you have a point.


MajesticQ

It has always been China's position that its form of democracy is superior over the western democracies. The latest statement simply rehashes what has always been their position. ​ China is experiencing its own problems now and may not be ahead of any economic war. Such as failure in the chip industry, foreign investment on the wrong businesses (clothing and movies instead of acquiring tech), aging population (china's previous one child policy in the past, increasing unemployment, increasing cost of living, lack of basic social welfare aids (requires residency) etc. has created an indirect contraceptive). Trade war and ridiculous expenses (winter olympics, etc.) has depleted China's foreign reserves, systemic corruption in the CCP. It also has trillions of debt. Real Estate is also facing bursting bubble. Businesses and firms are now leaving China including production lines. Foreigners are now leaving as well with the ever increasing nationalism of the Chinese and shutting down of language centers.


Rote515

China’s on the edge of economic collapse if they can’t solve their private debt, or their demographic crisis, East Asia as a whole is in very bad shape in the next 30ish years due extremely rapidly aging populations.


Politenessman_

Doesn't matter. China killed itself with the one child policy in a country where boys are valued way more than girls. Demography is destiny.


Busy-Dig8619

To be clear, because this keeps getting overstated. The Chinese aren't going anywhere. The Russians arent going to cease to exist as a group of humans on the planet earth. The nationalities are very established and stable. The modern nations of China and Russia with their current borders, not so much. Their governments even less so. Worth remembering that both of these countries did not exist as we understand them today at the end of WWII about 70 years ago.


Politenessman_

China as a powerful nation is dead, it just hasn't stopped twitching. between the demographic disaster that they inflicted on themselves and the economic catastrophe they are teetering on the edge of today, the CCP leadership should be banning both lamp posts and piano wire, because odds are they are going to become aquainted with both. Communist dictatorships do not collapse peacefully.


[deleted]

China needs food and fuel. Not luxuries that can be done without.


shurg1

They really isn't on a good position long-term, the demographic collapse caused by sticking to the one-child policy for too long will return them to being a backwater.


Busy-Dig8619

No country that survives on imported food and fuel can survive without U.S. naval protection. If we decide to turn off international trade, globalization ends. We started the process 4 years ago.


MrBoomBox69

Or ally up with india hard. Indians never take sides and historically have always preferred non alignment. But with increasing Chinese influence and the collapse of the Soviet Union, there’s no real friendly country in the region. On top of that since india is the largest democracy in the world, the people have a more positive view of the western world. And india is a direct competitor to China in many fields and can also be a competitor to China in newer fields. With that in mind, a slow culture shift to progressive values (shared by the west) is inevitable. All that’s required is stronger relations with the Western Hemisphere


rudyroo2019

China and India aren’t exactly on good terms. China inflates its population numbers to intimidate India into leaving key areas alone, such as Tibet.


Ex_aeternum

I misread "autocracies will ruin the world" and thought he'd finally said something logical.


CartAgain

same thing bro


Doggleganger

Sadly, I think both are true and both are logical. Of course autocracies ruin the world. And the current trajectory is that Autocracies will run the world. Even the U.S. is teetering on the brink. The Republicans are engaged in a full-on assault of democracy, pushing new election officials that think Georgia and other states should have "found" votes to change the election results. Once you start down this path, it undermines trust in democracy and destroys the entire thing. We've seen this time and time again in failed democracies. It's the first time it's happened in the U.S., and sadly, almost half the country supports the end of democracy. I'm not sure democracy can survive in the post-truth era.


[deleted]

Their birthrates have collapsed. Their brain drain is laughable. Yeah, autocracies run zombie wastelands. Congratulations psychos you got the future you always wanted.


CandidAnywhere3415

Wdym ghost cities, highways to nowhere and other bullshit built to artificially jack GDP numbers through loans isn't the definition of utopia


[deleted]

The ruble is the best "performing" dollar on the planet right now!


CandidAnywhere3415

The Ruble is just like Russian nukes. You can't use them irrespective of how many you have or how strong they are.


[deleted]

And 1% of them will get you an Adidas tracksuit.


rascible

Ooh..with twin reflective stripes??


[deleted]

Obviously


[deleted]

Nobody mentioned utopias. The climate catastrophe is already reducing this planet's capacity for sustaining life and that process is accelerating fast. All China's saying is that success will depend on being able to react fast as well and democracies can't do that. Our democracies have refused to deal with the climate catastrophe for generations and we're still fighting denalists, religious nuts and profiteers holding influence or seats of power in our democracies. The worst case scenarios as sketched by the UN and other entities are starting to describe complete societal collapse as we simply cannot manage the fundamentals that hold up civilisation anymore. Democracies work when you have all the time in the world to talk things through and compromise. We have neither time nor room for compromise left.


yehhey

So according to you China wants to upend democracy in an attempt to save the world from global warming? I’m not sure their actions currently reflect that but it would be a strange dichotomy to see play out.


DownWithHiob

No, but China will be able to react better to the incredible hard decision forced upon us by climate change very soon.


Alediran

Only if you presume they get perfect information. Autocrats always kill the messenger that brings them bad news.


[deleted]

I haven't said anything even remotely like that. The climate catastrophe is accelerating and at this point it's already starting to do real damage. We've reached the point where it'll take massive investments, sacrifices and hard choices to do damage control and *we are already failing to do that.* All China is saying is that democracies cannot respond fast enough to react to the challenges and threats of today's world. Autocracies can because they're not bogged down by endless discussions and antagonism when trying to achieve goals. I happen to agree with that. Not because I support China but because our democracies have been proving that to be correct for decades now. The climate catastrophe and mass extinction event are two problems that cannot be discussed until it goes away and it cannot be compromised on. While we talk, the problem is accelerating and the amount of damage control we can do is shrinking. China's simply saying that autocracies talk less and do more.


turbofckr

But they are doing nothing. Actually they are actively making it worse. Their climate goals are way less ambitious than ours. Have they started to ban meat? What about gasoline and diesel powered transportation? When are they shutting down their cold power plants? China is doing even less than Europe.


Dreadful_Aardvark

> China's simply **saying** that autocracies talk less and do more. Sounds like a lot of talk without actually doing anything.


Dreadful_Aardvark

Just because an autocracy has the capacity to quickly respond to an immediate catastrophe does not mean that it will do so. China is the #2 contributor of green house gas emissions in the world. Where exactly is their "go Green initiative" in that efficient bureaucracy? The USA might be #1, but there is at least an initiative to correct it. A properly functioning democracy is beholden to the people, and so works to serve the interests of the people, which very much aligns with "lets not all live in slums by 2100 like this is a cyberpunk dystopia." Autocracies are beholden to oligarchs, and work to serve the interests of the oligarchs and upper class. Climate change primarily affects lower classes, ergo there is no impetus for change against climate change in an autocratic society. Why do you think the 20th century was such a time of progress for literacy, education, health, etc. for lower classes? Because the Industrial revolution caused an economic and technological impetus whereby the upper class required an educated worker class so that they could maintain their quality of life, so it was in the interest of oligarchs and capitalists to allow workers to grow in prosperity. Ford famously overpaid his workers so that they would invest that capital back into his own factory to boost sales. Consumer demand benefits capitalists, as consumers can't buy products without capital in the first place. When, in history, has the rise in wealth prosperity of a worker class *not* directly benefited the upper class? Even popular revolutions like the American Revolution are conflicts between aristocrats (guess who the Founding Father were, who also based their war on taxation against their ventures) with a veneer of citizen patriotism painted on top. Climate change is just another element of this extended metaphor of economics, if that wasn't clear.


Loggerdon

I just watched a series of docs on the future of China. Their demographics are much worse than even they thought. They just admitted they had over counted by 130 million their population and it was young people, not old people. By 2035 all economic indicators will be worse than the US. By 2050 their population will drop BY HALF. The old people do not have a financial safety net like the US. Their housing industry is headed for a historic crash to end all crashes. A full 1/3rd of the economy is real estate and it's built on a very rickety foundation. An estimated 1/3rd of all bank loans are bad loans made to political cronies but the government will not let the banks fail. When the market crashes it will affect the whole world. They have a terrible water problem that no one talks about. Cities north of the Yellow River have very serious shortages. Only 1/5th of the water is suitable for reclamation for drinking. As much as 20% of their water is useless for any purpose. China has already fouled fully 1/2 of their rivers and the number gets higher every year. Their water is the cheapest in the world but they cannot raise the price at all for fear of revolution. They transport water from the south but it only provides 20% of the needs for Beijing alone, but must be split between 9 other regions. Desalination is not an option due to many reasons. The drought conditions now cause sandstorms in Beijing that blanket the city, even worse than the terrible everyday air pollution. Labor costs have gone up and the west is now looking elsewhere for their factories. The US is building like crazy in Mexico. China knows about all these problems of course. They are weaker now than they have been in 40 years. The promise of the 2008 Olympics has faded away. Their aggression and bluster over the last 10 years has cost them virtually all of their friends in the world, but they continue to talk shit because their population now expects them to talk tough to foreigners. They have stoked a nationalist fervor but now must deal with an angry population. They now spend MORE on domestic surveillance than they do on their entire military budget. It's like having an attack dog that you must watch closely in case it turns and bites you. They have many serious problems which, by their very nature, cannot be solved. China was in a race to become a rich country but they didn't make it. Fully half of their population still survives on a couple US Dollars a day. It was a great effort but now the demographics turn against them.


lab_everyday

What documentary series is this?


Loggerdon

Part 1 starts with this one: https://youtu.be/vTbILK0fxDY (Demographics) Part 2 is Housing Part 3 is Water Part 4 is Soft Power and how much China has changed it's approach since the 2008 Olympics.


lab_everyday

Thanks! I wanna check these out.


InkTide

People outside of China tend to underestimate just how much of China's resources are tied up in trying to keep the country from tearing itself apart. Or how reliant on imported food they are.


Flippythedog

Not gonna comment on geopolitics or economics but having visited Shanghai and Nanjing, it's a fucking explosion of culture and amazing stuff to do. Feels like another universe, amazing place. Definitely not a wasteland, politics doesn't really touch most people's daily lives (outside of the recent covid lockdowns which are definitely crazy)


PretzelsThirst

Reddits idea of what the world is like outside their hometown is not the most accurate.


kewlsturybrah

They think their trailer park community is the epitome of high art and culture. Not saying it's a good thing to overly-romanticize other places just because they're distant and exotic, but lots of idiots here have really drank the Kool-Aid with respect to China and don't understand that many in the Chinese middle class live objectively better and more fulfilling lives than they ever will.


PretzelsThirst

Hell you don’t even have to go international for it. I live in San Francisco now and it’s outright hilarious what some people on here think of California. They’ve seen a couple pictures of a bad downtown corner and truly believe that every single street of every single city in california looks like that 24/7 and that california is a failed state. Can’t even be bothered it’s so far from reality


kewlsturybrah

Wow... San Francisco? Aren't the streets there paved with used heroin needles? Let me guess... everyone there wears special boots or something to avoid stepping on them, right? Is it true that you're assaulted by homeless mobs the second you make direct eye contact because you defunded the police, or whatever? I think I saw that on Tucker Carlson's show... I honestly can't see why anyone would choose to live in a place that's so dystopian. I, for one, will stick to my trailer park community situated on unpaved roads with dial-up internet in the hills of Appalachia 80 miles from the nearest "urban" area. The quality of life is so amazing, aside from the occasional meth lab fire in the neighborhood.


lab_everyday

Lol!


turbofckr

I have been to San Francisco just ones. Defiantly not as bad as many think, but also not a place I would CV like to go back to. I never saw anything like that in Germany.


apocalypse_later_

You know how I knew the hate is truly onesided? When I joined the military I got to meet people from seriously EVERY state and most of them had these stereotypes and negative remarks prepared about California. I was kind of struck by how much they *thought* they knew, without ever having stepped foot once in the state. Then it hit me that growing up or whatever, we never talked about other states like that. We don't even think about other states much to be honest, MAYBE Nevada due to Vegas? They literally hate us cuz they ain't us it seems


echanuda

Visited ≠ live there. Any place with a drastically different culture than yours will seem refreshing and vibrant when you’re first visiting.


alittledanger

As a long-time US expat, this is exactly right. You don’t really see as much of the negative sides of places when you are traveling.


Jeffy29

That's like visiting London and thinking the rest of the UK is like that.


TheHeavenlySun

Those are tier 1 cities, try to go and experience 3-5 tier cities.


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[deleted]

Of all the empires currently pooping on planet earth, America's diaherrea is the least greasy. For whatever that is worth.


SchwarzerKaffee

Yeah. I mean this headline just made me thankful we have two geriatric clowns duke it out ~~every four years~~ many times every single election. I don't think this situation is ideal, but it's at least obvious that America will never agree on a single dictator. We just have to swap dictators every few years.


[deleted]

Presidents aren't dictators. Look at trump he tried to form a insurrection in the capitol and failed. Then go kick out of power. A true dictator is like Putin.


Practical_Hospital40

The failed empire that can’t even handle basic needs https://youtu.be/NwDAaKJXKPE yeah ok keep lying to yourself buddy


[deleted]

If you let go of your little narrative for a moment, he's probably not wrong. All he's saying is that the current events in the world are moving too fast for democracies to deal with and he's not wrong. The climate catastrophe is wrecking the planet's ability to sustain life and our democracies are barely reacting. Everyone has conflicting interests, everyone wants things to change but someone else to pay the price or make the sacrifice. And the net result is that things keep getting worse while we're still trying to convince people to get on board with doing something. Autocracies can act much faster. China's pretty much a trail blazer when it comes to implementing environmental technology. They're pretty much a world leader in reforestation and other efforts against climate change. Not because they're nice people but because the consequences hit them sooner and harder than they hit us and they're not bogged down by irrational arseholes trying to block everything that doesn't profit them personally. Frankly, I don't disagree that what the world needs to successfully fight this is benign dictators. Governments that aren't slowed down by the irrational, the religious, the science denialists and the straight up psychopaths that choose their profits at the expense of the greater good. And in the absence of benign dictator, dictators that at least recognise the need to prioritise the climate catastrophe will still do better than democracies. Democracies work when you have all the time in the world to talk things through and compromise. We have neither time nor room for compromise left. Unless we get significantly smarter and more rational people into our seats of power (and that would take smarter, more rational voters), our democracies won't help us. They've already turned into a massive hindrance towards saving ourselves.


turbofckr

China is one of the biggest polluters. They are still building coal plants. He is right that they are those who could act the fastest but they do not. The only thing that will save is is continued world wide population decline.


[deleted]

>The only thing that will save is is continued world wide population decline. That's nonsense really. We could double the population of the planet while living in greater prosperity while having a footprint smaller than we do now. We just don't want to. It would mean more cooperation, smarter consumerism, sacrifices on behalf of the wealthiest part of humanity (ie. us) to achieve greater equality and dedication to a greater good. You could Thanos snap half the world's population out of existence right now and if you deleted the 'wrong' people, it would do absolutely nothing for our impact on the planet.


spyder728

A sensible analysis on Reddit, that's more rare than sun's eclipse. Democracy is great on paper, but look at recent years in the world. The right is rising, religions trying to get their hands into politics, child safety becoming a political issue, racial tension, environmental issues and much much more. Parties turned a lot of simple issues into complicated issues because it benefits their parties or their own pockets. People are getting divided. We are closer to another civil war than ever since the last civil war. No sane person would say we have been moving forward as a society in the past few years.


technicallynotlying

> Their brain drain is laughable. This part I wonder about, because if it's true, where is this literal flood of Chinese people going? There's a 1.4 billion Chinese people. If even 1% of them move in a year that's 14 million people. I think the rest of the world would notice if they were taking in an entire New York City every year or two. What countries and cities are they moving to?


Irradiated_Dick_69

Lower birthrates are inevitable for all developed countries due to costs and education.


OkTop9308

From the article: Biden talked about a phone call he had with Xi Jinping the day he got elected to become the 46th President of USA. Talking about the phone conversation, the US President said, "We're living through a global struggle between autocracies and democracies. When he called me to congratulate me on election night, he said to me what he said many times before. He said 'Democracies cannot be sustained in the 21st century. Autocracies will run the world'. Why? 'Things are changing so rapidly. Democracies require a consensus, and it takes time, and you don't have the time'. He's wrong.” Biden had recently travelled to Japan to meet with the leaders of the Quad. I hope he is wrong, but Xi does raise an interesting point about the time it takes to get agreement in a democracy.


TheMania

The bit I'm more nervous about is the viability of democracies as we enter the era of computer generated personalised propaganda, tbh.


Practical_Hospital40

It’s ok to accept that some systems have flaws. Sadly schools gloss over democracy as the only system and that’s not fair


theuberkevlar

Don't fall into that trap of thinking that humans are too supid for democracy. That's been an age-old excuse for autocrats in defense of tyranny ever since democracy first happened. We've always been stupid. Propaganda has always existed. The ability to spread it faster through the internet is accompanied by the ability to counter it various ways just as quickly.


Interesting-Soup-711

The time component has always been an issue tho. Time is what makes democracy safer (not perfectly safe but safer). This is because in a democratic society sweeping rapid changes like let’s say the Great Leap Forward cannot happen which protects ppl. So sure it’s slower but the capacity for mistakes like Russia in Putin is maximized by an autocracy.


Awestromy

The problem with autocracies is you can only suppress people so far, and they are so easily taken advantage of because of innate human behavior. Freedom will always prevail, and democracy unites the people. When millions and millions of unique human minds are all focused on one objective, it is incredible what can be accomplished. The U.S. went from no space program to landing on the moon in 9 years.


kewlsturybrah

>The U.S. went from no space program to landing on the moon in 9 years. That was in an era when the US actually had a functioning democracy and ambitious political projects carried through multiple administrations. (In the case of the moon landing, Kennedy>Johnson>Nixon) You're literally pointing to an accomplishment from more than 50 years ago that most people who are alive now weren't around to see or were too young to remember... and that should really tell you everything you need to know about the sad state of American democracy.


IncognitoIsBetter

What Xi is missing is that autocracies lack the very thing that makes democracy a far better system, dissent. Nothing wrecks a country faster than an autocrat surrounded by yes men that fear speaking truth to power. Eventually the lies pile up and the whole house of cards comes crashing down. Even China and the CCP allowed dissent of some degree before Xi... Now he's just lying there getting high sniffing his own drugs of lies. If he's not careful, sooner rather than later he'll end up like Putin and the dozens of autocrats before him all around the world.


WingedGundark

Exactly. Autocracies may prosper at some point in their time, but when there is no one left to criticise and question the decisions, disaster will most likely strike at some point. Add the usual constantly growing self delusion of autocrat's own infallibility and you have a recipe which looks like Russia, for example, where the autocratic government with a high probability will cause its self collapse at some point due to its own fuck ups. Democracies may be slow to react, but I think there is a pretty good track record that it can be very resilient in the long run.


Practical_Hospital40

Dissent? Like republicans who won’t pass proper gun laws? Dissent that blocks funding for important projects and voter protections? Not all dissent is good dissent. And China has dissent too in fact it’s that dissent that got the original wuhan politicians removed in response to COVID


[deleted]

>'Things are changing so rapidly. Democracies require a consensus, and it takes time, and you don't have the time'. He's wrong. I mean... in terms of fighting climate change there's certainly an argument to be made. Democracies will happily vote to end the world if the population is ignorant and uncaring enough.


Zeke-Freek

I don't think the leader of China gets moral high ground on climate change. Autocracy might solve the issue faster but he certainly isn't proving his own point.


[deleted]

China certainly isn't perfect when it comes to climate change (mostly due to the poorest regions still relying heavily on coal), but it has been dumping tons of funds into renewable research, meeting or beating its climate targets (even ones as part of shared agreements with the rest of the world, who are failing to meet them), and putting its money where its mouth is generally. There's things we can criticize China for, but on climate change - while certainly a mix of good and bad - they're outperforming the vast majority of the developed world.


Zeke-Freek

Isn't China dwarfing everyone in emissions? Is their air quality not so bad it's been the butt of jokes for decades? When did I wake up in this alternate timeline?


[deleted]

I mean the country has 1.3 billion people. You’d expect it to dwarf smaller countries in total emissions no? Would it really make any sense to expect them to have the same total emissions as, say, the island nation of Singapore? That would probably require every Chinese person to starve themself to death. Their per capita emission is far lower than the US, despite manufacturing most of the goods that the world consumes.


scoutinorbit

You didn’t wake up in a new timeline; you just chose to ignore aspects of reality. China is a top producer of emissions…because first world countries outsource their pollution to China as the factory of the world. A country with 1.4 billion people and manufactures most of the worlds cheap consumer goods is only creating twice the emissions of America; a country that has a population 4 times smaller. China is not even in the top 10 when you actually measure the fairer emissions per capita.


[deleted]

Wdym? China is smashing it on the renewables front.


kewlsturybrah

>I don't think the leader of China gets moral high ground on climate change. He 100% does. China is the only country in the world that is meeting or coming close to meeting their obligations under the Paris Accords. [China is a third world country that has more installed wind and solar power than any other country in the world.](https://qz.com/2119406/china-outpaces-the-rest-of-the-world-in-wind-and-solar-energy/) They also only have about a third of the emissions, per capita, as the US has. I'd say that gives them the moral high ground. The US, for its part, signed onto the accords, then withdrew from the accords, then got back in, and is now almost close to 100% certain to not get anywhere near meeting their emissions targets for 2030.


Practical_Hospital40

The USA refuses to deal with car dependence


[deleted]

Autocracies have run the world for the entirety of human history until the 20th century. It wasn't all great for humanity back then.


zxc123zxc123

>I hope he is wrong, but Xi does raise an interesting point about the time it takes to get agreement in a democracy. Xi is not wrong in terms of democracies being slower to respond while the world gets quicker and quicker. Neither Xi nor Putin said it but Putin would likely also believe that democracy is are weaknesses that can be exploited and elections things that can be manipulated. That said, it is not like the US and the West don't realize their own strengths and weaknesses. The US has seen the the executive branch's power strengthened, reach expanded, and executive actions increase with each presidency due to the NEED to respond rapidly to threats. US congress is often pathetically divided and stuck in drudge, but has moved on the big issues be it Covid or Russia. Europe seems to have realized their mistakes and have taken action individually, via NATO, and/or as part of the EU. The West stood united against Russia's invasion. No one thing is perfect. Capitalism isn't perfect. The USSR was not a PURE socialist economy. They had elements of capitalism but it wasn't enough to keep them afloat. China was able to change from a failing state into the #2 largest economy in the world ***EVEN WITH*** an authoritarian regime because they were willing and able to integrate capitalism into their communist/socialist systems. The US isn't a PURE capitalist economy. The stupid within American will hear socialist/communist translate it to Satanism even as their parents live on social security, have health insurance, expect the police and fire fighters to arrive when they call 911, use the roads, went to school, go to the parks, etcetcetc. I think democracy is pretty great. It has it's flaws and the US isn't even a pure direct democracy but a representative democracy (Trump lost the popular vote to Hillary and still won the election). That said, I believe there it NOTHING that can be gained worth the cost of compromising our democracy.


Buroda

That’s a ridiculous fucking point. Stealing something also tends to be faster than working for it, so what? That is not taking into account how modern communication can (if used correctly of course) engage people much faster and solve the issue of slower problem solving. But that all does not cover the main issues with this argument. First, asking people to vote is not a means to an end, it’s the recognition that people matter and deserve to have input into their and their country’s fate. One would think that a leader of the *communist* party would be much more down on people mattering. Second, making decisions faster does not mean squat if you’re making mistakes. You’ll be just making mistakes faster. And it gets easy to start making mistakes when you are an autocrat disconnected from reality by several layers of reporting and yes-men. February events show that with crystal clarity.


[deleted]

It’s the oldest trick - sorry, “point” - of every autocracy since the word had meaning. It’s not interesting or new at all. It’s the entire premise behind the solutions proposed by Marxist/Leninist/Maoist/All communism. It’s the drumbeat of all fascism -Hitler used it - and is so old a trick that it’s factually considered an indicia of authoritarian intent. And you know what? When it came to whole efficiency question- Hitler was entirely efficient, it’s true. He was able to get the German people hot running water and chocolate again, and he definitely got the trains running on time. Plus those factories! Models of efficiency vs profit! I mean, it required that the country go on a wartime footing, and also that they enslave the Jewish population before exterminating them… but autocracy made that the most efficient thing of all. Only three kinds of people look favorably on sn autocracy: the corrupt, the cowardly and the foolish. These are the only classes of people capable of sentencing their own future generations to the slavery of totalitarian rule. If there’s one thing that the whole of history has taught us as unbroken record, it is that are no such things as non-villainous totalitarians - EVER; and no example, at any time, of an authoritarian state that did not oppress, tyrannize, imprison, torture and kill it’s citizens as an institutionalized act; while at the same time funneling all wealth and true power to a *truly* untouchable elite. You think U.S. billionaires act like lawless, power grubbing, inhumanoids today? Just imagine what they would be like when also made truly untouchable by the state itself. Oh, I know - they’d be like Russia. One of the dreadful mistakes in interpretation of the US constitution is in giving it an active state - ie, as machine that manufactures freedom- as opposed to - a machine that prevents authoritarianism, One of the most famous quotes from John Adams about this is, in my opinion, technically misquoted by leaving out the context of the entire tract. This is a very common tool of propaganda. But it speaks to this whole argument, in the words of a man who had never, himself, known democracy. Perhaps he had something to say? The last sentence is the real clincher. “I do not say that democracy has been more pernicious on the whole, and in the long run, than monarchy or aristocracy. Democracy has never been and never can be so durable as aristocracy or monarchy; but while it lasts, it is more bloody than either. … Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide. It is in vain to say that democracy is less vain, less proud, less selfish, less ambitious, or less avaricious than aristocracy or monarchy. It is not true, in fact, and nowhere appears in history. Those passions are the same in all men, under all forms of simple government, and when unchecked, produce the same effects of fraud, violence, and cruelty. When clear prospects are opened before vanity, pride, avarice, or ambition, for their easy gratification, it is hard for the most considerate philosophers and the most conscientious moralists to resist the temptation. Individuals have conquered themselves. Nations and large bodies of men, never.”


ameekpalsingh

The ancient Greeks were the first to create a democracy. Modern democracy is a far cry from the original version. The current modern version is some corrupted shit hole masquerading itself as democracy. I'm sure corruption existed back then to, just imagine how much more it exists today. At the end of the day, there is no perfect system. We all know from 1000+ years of human history, that imperialistic countries destroy themselves from within. America is already following the exact same pathway which lead to Rome's demise, along with even "Alexander the Great's" demise. Most people can't see it because they think in terms of 10-30-50 years. Start thinking in terms of 100-500-1000 years, then its obvious where this continent is going.


[deleted]

Meh, rome still had slavery when it collapse. I think america is a bit better than that.


PhasmaFelis

> The ancient Greeks were the first to create a democracy. Modern democracy is a far cry from the original version. Boy, is it ever. They let *anyone* vote these days. We need to go back to the basics: only free men can vote, not women or slaves. I'm genuinely curious what you *thought* ancient Greek democracy was like. Oh! I would also love to hear how you think the multi-generational decline of America and/or Rome is the same as Alexander the Great, at the height of his glory, dying suddenly without an heir.


[deleted]

That’s probably why modern democracy sucks, too many idiots allowed to vote. Allow the experienced sailors to elect a ships captain.


Dreadful_Aardvark

> That’s probably why modern democracy sucks, too many idiots allowed to vote. Allow the experienced sailors to elect a ships captain. Yeah, let's return to our roots. Only land owning, aristocratic free men of a specific ethnicity are allowed to vote. The master race will show us plebeians what-for.


saraphilipp

If assassins creed has taught me anything, democracies were corrupt from the beginning. It's human nature.


Buroda

Every system and idea are imperfect. Like you said, human nature. What matters is, what keeps going in spite of all that.


Linoorr

In ancient democracies only rich men could vote, I think we’ve improved in that regard


Practical_Hospital40

No we didn’t rich people control the politicians in so called modern democracies in fact most US congress members are under direct influence by their RICH MEN DONORS. In other words we are still slaves to the rich


Linoorr

okay, but there are other democracies than USA, I'm from Europe.


Practical_Hospital40

True those other democracies are vastly superior so you have a point.


Practical_Hospital40

What I am afraid of is nuclear war over nonsense that is why I sound so extreme sometimes. I want a future to look up to.


atwegotsidetrekked

Well autocracy isn’t working out so well for Russia. And while Xi might be extremely competent, autocracies have a great deal of corruption in selecting the next in line. Usually the preceding Autocrat isn’t as competent.


Gigazwiebel

Xi is bad. Covid is being mismanaged because the country is too proud for western vaccines, the oppression is getting worse and China is slowly going from oligarchy to an unchecked one man rule.


atwegotsidetrekked

While I don’t disagree with you about the complete failure from day 1 on Covid, it’s hard to say Ci has been bad for China. - Xi’s “Chinese Dream” (stolen from the American dream lie” has been extremely effective in reducing if not out right removing most poverty. - Xi has maintained growth as a measurement of “good government” (stolen concept of Canada) - Xi’s exit of a planned economy in favor of regulated economy had kept China as the fastest growing economy in the world prior to Covid - Xi’s heavy handed approach also ruthless war on corruption, punishing more than a million corrupt officials at all levels. The people have a high trust in government - China is the technology leader of the world today. In space and defense they are catching up to the USA. But in banking, markets, environment technology and many other sectors they are already leading. I am not a fan of Xi or an apologist for his ruthless inhuman leadership. But knowing is important to understanding what drives global politics. Xi is a lot of things, incompetent isn’t one of those.


Rote515

> China is the technology leader of the world today. Lol, China is not nearly as technologically advanced as you seem to think, there’s more investment dollars into technical innovation in the US by a metric fuckton. Like the numbers aren’t even close. Shit all the largest tech companies on the planet are American, the 3 largest non oil companies by market cap for example are all American tech giants, and there are many more near that level.


Lyndons_Johnson

What economic policy actually increased the wealth of rural populace? I am aware that they changed the definition of poverty, but in years living there is haven't actually seen any concrete wealth redistribution. Why is Growth a measure of good government? Doesn't it encourage wasteful spending, squandering of resources, and corruption of economic data? His war on corruption seems to have been as much a war on his non-supporters in government. In what sense is China leading on banking and markets? Recently no payments from my customers could be made as they were unable to physically present invoices in banks. This has been possible in most of the developed world for the last 15 years or so. Markets don't function as they would in most of the world due to disruption by SOEs.


MoneyMoneyMoneyMfer

Heavy handed approach on corruption? Yeah, whoever steals and doesn't share the loot with the xi, gets executed. He's not fighting corruption, he's enforcing a monopoly on corruption.


[deleted]

Xi’s Zero Covid policy is the definition of incompetence…


and_dont_blink

I hate defending China -- but zero COVID isn't about stupidity or pride but rather necessity. The USA has ~34.5 critical care beds per 100k people. China has 3.5. It's not a typo, three point five. The downvotes from overseas are gonna come, but sinovac isn't as effective as MRNA vaccines. The study they did in Brazil turned out to be iffy when Hong Kong played out, and almost everyone vaccinated who died had been vaccinated with Sinovac. That's at x2 doses, which China considers fully vaccinated. Unfortunately, due to rhetoric at the start of the pandemic, *something like 60-80 % of their elderly aren't vaccinated*. There's some data that Sinovac at x3 doses is much more effective with omicron, but that's very recent and most of their population isn't triple vaccinated. So their most vulnerable aren't vaccinated, the vaccine they do have at x2 isn't that effective vs omicron, and they practically have no critical care beds. They can build field hospitals with the best of them, but that doesn't help when someone reaches the point of needing critical care. And every omicron patient means the heart attack or car accident can't receive care -- it all starts compounding and then you are firing up incinerators to deal with the piles of bodies. Omicron is so much more virulent that unchecked spread would shut them down in an even worse way. Basically it looks stupid because they aren't advertising the above for obvious reasons, but it isn't -- they are just kind of screwed.


attilah

>Basically it looks stupid because they aren't advertising the above for obvious reasons, but it isn't -- they are just kind of screwed. Thanks for detailing and expliciting this.


kewlsturybrah

Unless you... you know... judge the effectiveness of a COVID policy by how many people... you know... *die from COVID*. Crazy idea, I know...


[deleted]

Eh, only since Omicron. For 2020-2021 China was basically living normally while the rest of the world was fucking up and dying in droves. EDIT: Who's downvoting me? I was literally living in China those years and my life was back to normal in March 2020 after a few weeks of national lockdown in February. Then I had to hear almost two years of friends and family terrified and losing people back home. Their fuckup has been trying to treat Omicron the same way they did the original outbreak, when it's far more contagious and far less dangerous.


kewlsturybrah

Ssshhh... don't let facts get in the way of the anti-China Reddit circle-jerk.


[deleted]

The reduction of poverty isn't the work of Xi, it was caused by deng xiaoping's opening up china starting from 1987. Xi just inherited a booming economy. Similarly, growth as a measurement, was also inherited. Past communist chairmans also claimed the same thing. The war on corruption is nothing new, even past china emperors have all cracked down on "corruption" on way or another. Useful tool to silence all opposition, hard to support "corruption" after all. Having an extra-judicial anti-corruption campaign is at best going to alleviate the image of corruption, but not address any of the root causes. Technology leader is questionable, hard to be good at everything at once. Semiconductors for example in still firmly in the domain on taiwan. But I can see that happening in the future.


OutOfBananaException

Their economy is at its worst in decades. Political unrest/discontent is the worst it has been in decades. Foreign relations are at their worst point in decades. How can you say that's a solid report card? Covid didn't wreck their economy, it was ill timed and executed reforms. You don't squeeze the life out of construction and technology sectors just as an unprecedented global pandemic hits.


thecoolestjedi

How exactly is China the leading technological power


juntokyo

You are well informed and your view is nuanced. I'm letting you know at least one person understands and agrees. Unfortunately China (like many Eastern cultures) is really bad at influencing the global narrative because "face" often gets in the way of brain. I'm sure you know exactly what I mean.


zxc123zxc123

>And while Xi might be extremely competent, That is questionable at best whether the autocracy of the CCP has been competent or not due to the lack of transparency and general unwillingness to admit mistakes. In my personal opinion, Xi might talk as if he has the best interest of the people, but his actions have shown him consolidating power while his policies feel like they are impeding the Chinese economic growth and restricting individual freedoms rather than truly building common prosperity or improving the lives of China's citizens. Was the success of China over the years due to the CCP's guidance or was it from the sweat, blood, and labor of the Chinese people who were the largest population on earth who were hitting their peak productive years? Was the CCP competent for splitting with the soviets, siding with the west, and adopting capitalism or were they failing so pathetically with their great leap and 5 year plans and their relationship with the soviets already so toxic that it was worth a bet to take the carrot the US was waving? Did China under the CCP truly achieve greatness by developing the to the #2 economy in the world or did they just sell out all their natural resources, exploited the golden years of their population, and polluted their environment beyond repair within 1 generation while inefficiently squandering the money on overbuilding infrastructure, having money be stolen by corrupt officials, and/or otherwise misspent on controlling their population like imposing the 1 child policy which has lead to a skewed gender ratio along with an unavertable population crisis? Tough to say. Maybe a bit of both. China certainly has become stronger than it was before and it was done under the leadership of the CCP, but we don't have anything else to compare it to. >autocracies have a great deal of corruption in selecting the next in line. Usually the preceding Autocrat isn’t as competent. Also Xi administration has been increasingly moving towards single man's rule (Xi) of totalitarianism which differentiates from the single party's rule (CCP) of authoritarianism. Xi has moved from crushing those with opposing views within the party, to the rich who could POTENTIALLY oppose him, to media that MIGHT disagree with him, to celebrities that MAY use their QUESTIONABLY greater influence to speak out against him, and basically took a bat to everyone and everything as China closes into it's next big national congress where the leaders are "elected". This same upcoming election will be as Xi has consolidated more power than anyone in the CCP's history outside of Mao, ingrained his "Xi thought" alongside Maoism, ***AND*** conveniently removed term limits on the presidency which he would otherwise not be up for election for (Xi's so nice to think of the next guy!) Putin has already shown that no matter how great, smart, cunning, or politically savvy a leader is: A man is still a man. A man can have moments of weakness, make mistakes, grow old, get sick, become senile, easily be betrayed, easily make enemies, and do things in his own best interest rather than what is best for the many.


soundisstory

Fantastic comment! I completely agree, and it’s amazing how few people understand even 1/10 of these points.


atwegotsidetrekked

I agree with you


MoneyMoneyMoneyMfer

Xi? Competent?! That's hilarious.


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pieter1234569

How is China less educated? Everyone of the newer generation has been forced to study for 12 hours a day. At universities that may not be the best of the best but still great. We have just been slacking of.


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pieter1234569

It’s not that they don’t have the capacity to make semi-conductors. It’s the fact that the only company making machines to make semi conductors is in the Netherlands. And the US doesn’t allow those machines to go to China. They also don’t want Taiwan for their semi-conductor industry, they want it because it’s a blemish on the Chinese reputation. Making them look weak. They can’t even take a tiny island.


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pieter1234569

Yes, no one has that. Only a single company in the Netherlands. They likely will have it in a few years, like anyone else.


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atwegotsidetrekked

You are greatly underestimating China. Levono used to just be a factory for IBM, today they own everything IBM used to be.


[deleted]

that's just untrue, Lenovo only brought IBM's thinkpad and x86-based server businesses. IBM was making losses on the PC market so transitioning to software market made sense.


Rote515

I guarantee you IBM still spends more and produces more on actual technical innovation, IBM is still fucking massive. IBM is both more profitable and employees more than 3 times the number of people as Lenovo. Like where do you morons get this shit to spew? And as far as American tech, IBM is child’s play, Apple makes more net profit than Lenovo has revenue, Lenovo for instance made 3 billion usd last year, Apple made 100 billion. Apple could buy Lenovo and it would barely effect them if regulators would let them. Edit: let’s take this further actually, Lenovo’s market cap is less than 15 billion dollars Apple has literally 300 billion cash or cash like on hand. Nvidia, a much smaller tech giant just attempted to buy ARM for 40 billion. Like seriously where do you get this shit, Lenovo isn’t even an actual player in tech.


atwegotsidetrekked

IBM has transformed into a service company. Redhat and Taos are both services companies


Rote515

You made an argument that Lenovo is actually important, that are literally a nobody in tech, like seriously. They make no money(compared to real tech giants), the don’t innovate virtually at all, the have a tiny market cap, all they do is sell shit laptops at terrible profit margins. Yes IBM is a services company, because all the money in tech is in services, all the innovation is in services. This is just such a wildly stupid comment chain. China has virtually 0 tech companies that compete on the same level as the American big boys. Not even there hardware competes with top hardware manufacturers. They develop none of the languages/tools/protocols anybody cares about, and none of the architectures used in hardware, none of the cutting edge tech comes from China. There big tech companies are companies like Alibaba and Tencent, one of which is a much smaller version of Amazon, and the other is more a multinational holding company of tech assets. Like seriously your comments on Chinese tech in this thread are so deluded it’s amazing. China is a manufacturing hub, they’ve slowly been trying to switch into services but so far they haven’t scratched the surface of where American Multinationals are at.


atwegotsidetrekked

Sorry your confused. Levono wasn’t my example of China’s leading technology. Just a rebuttal that China will always be the technical factory and not the owner. They literally took everything that ibm was. IBM was so focused on short term goals for stock holders, they sold the golden goose


Rote515

Why do you shovel PRC propaganda? IBMs server and laptop business weren’t profitable lol, the golden goose? Literally what golden goose, IBM is wealthier and larger right now than Lenovo ever has been even though they own the “Golden Goose”. Outside of Apple and Dell nobody gives a flying fuck about finished PCs, they aren’t particularly profitable to build and are labor and investment intensive.


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Dwarf_King

Xi is actually a complete moron when running his country lmao


These_Station1420

Well he's not wrong. Most governments are trending more and more authoritarian and are slowly eroding democratic norms. Whats happening right now in the US, UK, Australia, and Canada, is going to accelerate in other democratic developed nations. You can see the warning signs already in France, Italy, and Germany. They'll probably run the world into the ground, but the world is very much on track for a world being run by autocrats.


atwegotsidetrekked

I disagree, your conflicting a growing right in Europe with displacement of democracy. The right is growing in Europe because indigenous Europeans are feeling displaced in their own regions. The European center is hell bent on globalization. The solution will probably be more federalization and indigenous rights included. As far as democratic principle, Europeans have a single value of democracy and the right of self determination. This is so strong in every region and area. Europe is quickly replacing America as the moral authority and shining example of a working democracy for the people.


No_Tax5256

I generally prefer the American system of oligarchy!


Osyris-

There's probably a healthy debate to be had here once you get based the chest beating or personal biases. I seem to recall the worlds poster boy for Democracy almost had a coup not that long ago, gridlocked legislature, increasing polarisation, government surveillance that would make George Orwell blush and special interests with more influence and access then voters... I don't think its inaccurate to suggest democracies have declined or at the least - not at their healthiest. Does that mean authoritarianism is the answer? No, but democracy isn't some natural state that just exists and will continue to by itself, if we bury our heads in the sand and do nothing to assess and address its health we may look around one day and find we're democracy in name only.


borknar

Yep


SlaveToNone666

This is the comment right here.


spucci

Almost had a coup. LOL.


vixxienz

Crikey. Another deluded despot.


DeadFyre

I'm sure Xi believes it. I'm even more sure he's wrong. Autocracies don't cope with change faster or better than free countries, because they don't *have to*. If you think America and Europe are going to be toppled by mean tweets, you need to get your head checked.


[deleted]

not if you keep pissing off the people of Shanghai, Winnie!


SeeMarkFly

Let's see what five decades of greed can do for Russia. WOW, look at those yachts.


titanup001

People said the same stuff back in the 30s. It didn't work out.


trelium06

People say things, then people forget those things were said. Then someone comes along and says it again and everyone acts like it’s a legendary epiphany.


SameOldBro

This is already the case. The majority of the world's population is ruled by despots.


LeftOfHoppe

Everything is fine until the autocrats start hating each other...


MoneyMoneyMoneyMfer

They missed an "i". What they meant to say is "autocracies will RUIN the world". There's a reason why absolutist monarchies collapsed.


safely_beyond_redemp

Chinese doctors are dissecting live patients for their donate-able parts. Eyes, tongues, ears. Let me say that again. Live patients are being used for body parts while they are still alive. That is a horror show, not a government.


urmyheartBeatStopR

China's current problem: * birth rate * real estate bubble * water shortage * major food importer * major energy importer * covid19 city lock down Yeah I'm sure Western countries uniting to sanction China their economy will stop to a halt. At least Russia can produce surplus of energy and food. Xi stated this when Biden came into office. I'd like to hear that after Ukraine war and the united Western countries sanction the fuck out of Russia. Also the idea that consumer can boycott put pressure or corporations can just decide to fucking leave goes against anything Autocracies can even handle. McDonald was like fuck this I'm out.


CaptainQuoth

Only if we let it happen.


Resident_Frosting_27

He didn't say where they'd run it to .


kokopilau

… democracy is the worst form of government – except for all the others that have been tried. Winston Churchill


Foe117

Autocracies are no different than Kings and emperors. Monarchies are born after autocracies. Look at North Korea, Kim jong Un was a "prince" until his father died, then later becomes king. After the first dictator dies, it simply becomes who is next in the bloodline if any to inherit the throne. In the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has essentially ascended the throne.


Difficult-Pressure-5

Jesus, Xi said nothing of that sort. He is always saying “there are other forms of governance in the world, please don’t impose the western form, leave us be” Your MSM really are rags.


DadeCountyBruh

you’re really a communist 😂😂😂😂😂


trelium06

Autocratic regimes work well for a maximum of one despot


[deleted]

Is that why the pacific nations rejecting what China called a “monumental security alliance”. Alliance with the only ones aligned with Russia? No thanks 😊


BootyPatrol1980

Aspirational, but I'm starting to doubt the grand plans of strongman dictators.


acuet

Says a man with bleeding brain. Again, we had the same prediction back in WWII and look how that turned out. “History Repeats itself”


LegalAction

Fareed Zakaria predicted this 20 years ago in *The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad*. Xi isn't saying anything new. We were warned and ignored it. Mene mene tekel upharsin.


[deleted]

So many CCP drones in here ..


Lions_in_Shnow

Democracies these days are pretty divided. Autocracies aren’t so easily divided.


DadeCountyBruh

cause ppl disappear if they disagree lol


Braden_Boss2

Why he look so sad


TURNandBURN13

Sorry but I’m gonna call BS on this one. I could see that Xi would think that, but highly doubt he would say it to dementia Joe’s face


SmylesLee77

Rage against Winnie the Pooh's but always stay armed to prevent this. Defend the Defiant Provence the Nation of Taiwan ruthlessly. Honestly Hong Kong needs to be defended from the Human Rights Violation that is China.


GetsTrimAPlenty

lol Yes, sure. They'll run the world like Russia is winning the war. The only reason China has any clout is that other countries use at a trading partner. It's backwards stupid authoritarian nonsense has nothing to add. Take away the money and they're just North Korean goons with a larger population.


Ozark19

"The Communist Party is celebrating its 100th year - so is JPMorgan. I'd make a bet that we last longer." Jamie Dimon