invictus

wish him all the best

1. I mean I don't know the specifics of Biden's policies, but the fact that Trump still has not proposed an alternative to Obamacare after 3 years is a pretty clear indictment for me that he is not very smart policy-wise. 2. The performance of US economy was strong before the lockdown if you look at the stock market for sure. But be aware that while his tax cuts (which benefited the super rich for the most part) did help to boost the employment rates, the US historical data show that drastic cuts in taxes only work for a short period of time before the economic fatigue kicks in, and fundamental problems such as lack of funding to poor communities and public schools start to appear. And I am sure most people would not have blamed Trump for the GDP going down because of COVID. 3. I don't think I understand your point here. 4. Well his peace treaties might turn out well or not, but I think that getting out of the Iran deal is pretty stupid to say the least, and not very peaceful of him. 5. There is not any signs that the Democrats can do anything to the 2nd amendment. It's a political suicide if they try to touch that. At most, they might try to pass policies like better gun training or more strict background checks on a federal level. 6. I get what you mean by school choice, but the underlying problem here is that public schools are not getting the funds that they need. 7. Well as someone who grew up in China, I can assure you that most people do not even have the time to think about attacking other countries because life is busy. They are just happy that the country is stable enough to have a decent life. Sure, most chinese want to have a more cultural impact in the world (soft power), but hardly any of them are plotting the destruction of the rest of the world. Obviously, we all have to be vigilant against the CCP, but international politics is a lot more complicated than simply us versus them. 8.That is a really stretched argument to start with (fallacy of false correlations, and it is also funny that Trump inherited the booming economy of the Obama's administration and actually made it worse in many respects. 9. If by big tech censorship you mean banning conspiracy groups like Q then I don't know what to say. A reminder that these tech companies are private corporations who have absolute control over what are posted on their platforms. Last thing: And of course mainstream media reporting in general is biased because they are pushing certain narratives, but you have to also see through the hypocrisy of Fox News and far-right alternative medias. If you can't do that, then you are just as hypocritical as the medias you don't like.

@commie Look, the money spent in foreign territories always has pros and cons, the pros are to boost your international status and future cooperation with other countries among other things, and the cons are that it could backfire if a country does not spend it wisely or addresses the wrong problems. That being said, the CCP is not investing money in foreign territories to address the inequality issue within China. Like I mentioned above, if the central government really cares about the workers conditions and well-being. They should first allow formation of worker unions despite the fact that the official discourse is that China is ruled by the working class.... There are so many simple things that they can do to immediately improve the wealth inequality situation, but they are not doing so. Hence, I highly doubt the argument that CCP is pouring all these money in Africa to address the inequality issue within China, if anything, it improves African lives, but certainly no visible benefits for the vast majority of Chinese apart from those who work in these projects in Africa. I am not sure what you are referring as for the money spent on USA, I can think of several potential things that are related to this, but you have to expand a bit more. Although I will say that from a citizen's perspective, I will always put the well-being of the people in front of the country, and if I can at least allocate some of the money into the hands of the Chinese people who need it, I would absolutely do it. Here's the thing, only North Koreans are still unaware to what is going on around the world. So yes the vast majority of Chinese know that China and USA have been close since the Nixon. In fact, they knew it since Nixon's visit, because the political tone at the time was actually more aggressive towards the USSR than it was towards USA. Nixon and Mao both "needed" each other to contain Soviet Union, which led to the ironic statement by Mao who said that he preferred the Republicans over the Democrats because at least the Republicans are openly against Communism while the Democrats can stab you from the back. The lesson here is that the majority of Chinese are taught very biased political lessons and ideologies, they do understand the basics of geopolitics better than most people on this planet. I would not use the word "propping" because the two countries are in a codependent situation. The Chinese always knew that USA was superior to them in every conceivable ways. However, that sentiment has changed in recent years with China making more and more breakthroughs( like GDP, 5G adoption,...) The election of Trump back in 2016 is a "proof" among others in the eyes of many Chinese people that western democracy is not the only viable pathway to build a successful country. The great firewall (which i oppose) serves as a information filter nowadays rather than information blockage. The CCP and the news network used to selectively choose bad press on USA for example and report them, but today they don't even need to put in massive propaganda efforts because the whole country is in a massive echo chamber like any other social media. Access to information is a lot more convenient nowadays in China unless that information directly harms CCP's reputation or destabilize the regime. Hence why you can find tons of info on Belarus in general, but you won't find any news on the recent protests going on in Belarus as an example.

Yes, and who did that benefit in the end primarily? The people who were colonized?? Don't get me wrong, the chinese investments in Africa are certainly not done out of pure benevolence. The CCP is trying to expand its global influence and soft power by gaining allies on the International stage. But to compare these infrastructure projects currently on going in Africa with those that were built in the colonization era simply in the benefits of the elite class is a false equivalence. Like I said the CCP is literally dumping billions of dollars oversea while ignoring the internal wealth inequality gap, so I am my reservations and criticisms about these money-burning mega projects, but to say the infrastructures built in during colonization era benefited the people equally than those of today is simply not true.

In regards to China, it is very hard to fully understand what is going on in China, and I say that as someone who grew up in China. Foreign reports can be hit-or-miss depending on specific issue, and the internal news is more centralized rather than diversified. First of all, it is a "communist" country which prohibits worker unions and public assembly for protests even though it is stated in the constitution that you can do the things above. There has also been increasing suppression of Maoist movements in recent years, as some more radical 'leftists' in China believe than Xi is drifting away from what Mao represents. Ironically, you also have Deng loyalists who fully embraced the introduction of free market in China back in the 80s. What's even stranger is that both groups, although both hate each other, they all hate Xi who basically has done nothing yet except lifting the 10 years limit on the chairman position. Some speculate he is going to take back Taiwan as his prime legacy, but one thing for sure is that he is more unpredictable than former chairmans, and the fact that his family suffered from the Cultural Revolution only further puzzles me this man's behaviors. And you know the best part?? All of the internal politics inside the Party can only be somewhat deduced because we know so little of what is going on inside. My dad used to joke that if someone important does not appear in the journals anymore, that means he is replaced for unknown reasons. So, in regards to what China does, I realized that from an outside perspective, it is hard to understand what it is exactly doing at times. CCP can be pushing aggressive environmental policies and actually implementing them while having no problem imprisoning foreign citizens who spoke against CCP when they were not even in China. Western Medias are not really helping in many cases either like when they try to compare China's investments in Africa with European Colonization when in reality it is a really complex issue because each individual investment is unique and handled by different chinese companies. Whether you like it or not, train rails are being built across Africa, and hydro stations are set up to power the electricity of cities. Personally, I find it dishonest to compare infrastructure building with literal slavery like many foreign medias do, but I also find it weird that many chinese people would defend the billions and billions dollars thrown to Africa when half of China is earning less than 200 RMB per month, which is not very socialist of them but whatever.The hypocrisy and the double standards displayed on both sides are simply incredible to witness. Sorry i went on a bit of rant, don't hesitate to ask me specific questions about China if you have any.