China has upset many countries in the Asia-Pacific region with its release of a new official map that lays claim to most of the South China Sea, as well as to contested parts of India and Russia, and official objections continue to mount. What is the map, and why is it upsetting people so much?
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It seems significant, then, that Beijing chose to release the map on the heels of a late August meeting of the BRICS nations — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – and just before China is to participate in top-level meetings of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the Group of 20 rich and developing nations.
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In releasing the map now, Beijing is widely seen as signaling it has no intention of backing down on any of its claims and is making sure that its positions are fresh in the minds of other countries in the region.
You presume that I defend China, I do not. Just because America genocided Native Americans, and carried out extrajudicial executions in Vietnam and Iwo Jima, doesn’t mean that they are evil. The same metric should be applied to China. Maybe both countries are bad. Don’t limit your understanding. I’m rooting for you.
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They are not the same, but comparable. China hasn’t invaded a country since Vietnam. America unjustifiably invaded Iraq in 2003. My goal is not to defend China, but to make people aware that America isn’t the arbiter of justice in the world. Both countries are using propaganda to demonize the other. You don’t have to pick a side.
You’re doing a poor job of it though… What your doing is going on posts that have nothing to do about America and saying “yeah, but America is bad”. Most people here are aware that america does a lot of bad things. But denying that China is magnitude worse for its citizens isn’t “not to defend China”.
You sound like a China apologist more than anything. You convince nobody by doing that.
I don’t defend China at all. They are imperialist just like America. But I tire of the hate for China propagated by western media to justify war.
How do you know that China is magnitudes worse for its citizens?Everything you believe you know about China is filtered through the lens of western media. I don’t apologize for any nation. I don’t think nations should even exist. We are all humans. Try not to forget that. If I’m doing a poor job of it and not convincing anyone, why did you feel the need to reply?
You present western media as a single monoblock. It isn’t. Even a single media is not a single coherent unit. Every journalist has his/her own voice since, contrary to China, we don’t lock people up for voicing their opinion. Everyone can do investigative journalism. There are correspondants in most countries, when information comes up, it is verified as much as possible with people living there. When we talk about investigative journalism, the information is verified and usually corroborated by the other independent medias. If a media realize that the government propaganda doesn’t match with reality, they can publish the story without retaliation. Not only that, but they would have quite the story and they will be quite happy to publish it.
You seem unfamiliar with all this, do you have free press where you live?
Equating Western propaganda (and yes it exists) with Chinese authoritarian state is precisely a China apologist attitude.
I replied because I wanted to. The fact that I replied doesn’t have anything to do with your ability to convince people.
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Why do you feel the need to pick one over the other? Depending on what you value, one might be better than the other. But they can both be bad in different ways. You’re convincing yourself that they’re mutually exclusive, when it’s really a false dichotomy. They can both be bad, and we, as a civilization should seek to do better than either has to offer.
You seem to have made a choice by trying to inject America bad arguments into a discussion that had nothing to do with America. So I ask you, why are YOU okay with China’s wrongdoing instead of criticising every country that does something bad?
I was the first comment! Sort by old. It’s a map, not the holocaust.