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this post was submitted on 02 Sep 2025
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Fun fact: It's actually possible for two countries to both be authoritarian!
The US killed a million innocent people in Iraq just a few years ago, and is *currently * drone bombing several countries in ME and north africa, and is currently supporting the apartheid state of israel with billions of dollars in military aid.
The PRC has not been in a war since its skirmish with Vietnam in 1979.
The US has a network of > 800 military bases across the globe, and has been involved in regime change in nearly every country.
Which one is authoritarian?
I feel like this is shifting the focus to imperialism, where the US is overwhelmingly and undeniably worse.
However, domestically, if you wanna pretend that someone as a random citizen, has any chance of receiving political representation in China, well you enjoy your fantasy.
The US and China are both deeply undemocratic places. I'm saying this as someone from neither country.
Anyone who's actually been to China would know this. It is authoritarian. It's not even something viewed as bad by most people in China. It's just the way things are there.
There is pretty strong support for the government there, albeit that could be argued as product of censorship, repression and also genuine support. Many see the CCP as having done a lot of good things which they are grateful for, which in addition to the bad things, in fairness, they have done.
I'm getting kinda tired of some leftists knee jerking "China Good", just as much as I'm getting kinda tired of the "China Bad" crowd, when the truth is neither wholly good nor wholly bad.
We can be leftists and not have a hard-on for any country claiming to be socialist, you know
"They can both be authoritarian"
"WELL USA INVADED IRAQ"
Lmao
take a look at that map and you will notice they are fucking over the entire planet.
not just iraq, although usians like to ignore how much death and suffering they caused there. (all the while they sanction places like cuba)
you couped my country and made it undemocratic to this day and you can't even tell where i'm from.
Which one is currently genociding Uhygurs? Which one illegally annexed Tibet and Hong Kong? Both countries are authoritarian shit-holes.
tibet was never invaded, theocrats lost their slaves and libs are somehow mad about it
Lol Tibet was still cutting off boys genitals to serve the lamas when china 'invaded'
what
Like I can get not agreeing with it but illegally annexed how do you expect to be taken even a little seriously
I keep hearing 'illegal war' in the media.
What the fuck is a legal war? A war faught by lawyers?
Nope, only one of them is a shithole.
I’m pretty sure virtually all of the Tibetan people are happy to no longer be suffering under theocratic feudalism. Happy to no longer be illiterate serfs and slaves, suffering depredation under a god-king. I doubt many of them are sad that CIA asset Dalai “suck my tongue” Lama is in exile. [1] [2]
Entirely legal. In fact it would have been illegal for the UK not to hand it over.
The UK’s 99 year lease to subjugate Hong Kong ended. A lease which had been forced upon Imperial China at gunpoint during the century of humiliation. Hong Kong reintegration after the lease expired was a foregone conclusion. The last minute, US-backed attempt at color revolution failed.
Neither, but one of them trained, funded, and organized terrorists in the region, and then made up a genocide narrative, and then imposed illegal sanctions on it using the fabricated genocide narrative as a pretext. Previously.
Idk if it's just me, but it's insane to bring up Uhygur genocide, which has not been in the news or mentioned at all for years, while we watch US funded Israel blowing up starving children on a daily basis.
There is evidence that China was oppressive to Ughyurs, but currently enacting an active genocide is a stretch.
If you want an overview of someone cutting through the bullshit: https://youtu.be/cz9ICFDk8Js
TLDW:
Anyways, from what I've heard, China's dialed this shit back when they were first put on the spotlight. For whatever oppression China may have taken part of, it is not even a tenth of what the oppression the United States and other Western nations have been dishing out for the past few centuries.
US genocided Natives to be born, and historically oppressed its own population (slavery, internment camps, etc) and has continually oppressed others (overthrowing democracies, genocide, crimes against humanity, etc)
UK, Germany, France and other Western nations also love aiding genociders while also oppressing anti-genociders.
France also has an obsession with trying to force Muslim women to undress in public, dictate how they dress. Lmao
Only one country is genociding muslins.
"illegally annexed" Hong Kong LMAO
Uighurs
Tibet
Supporting Russia in Ukraine
Look up the definition of authoritarianism. Bombing other countries is not the defining feature of an authoritarian government.
Terms like Authoritarianism and Totalitarianism were defined or entrenched by a lot of western supremacist authors, who needed to twist terminology in such a way that excluded the US (capitalism's worldwide enforcer and the cause of so much death and destruction) from any wrongdoing, while demonizing the colonial world who fought back against the US for their own sovereignty as "authoritarian".
I highly suggest reading Losurdo's - Western Marxism, for an in-depth analysis of some of these white supremacist authors, and how they demonize the anti-colonial struggle.
You might be interested in a book by Lenin titled: "Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism".
Both...
"Authoritarian" is largely a meaningless term. All it really means is one group using force against another group, but it doesn't say anything about which group is which. In the US Empire, the capitalists use the state to crush the workers, and export genocide and chaos to the global south. In the PRC, the working class uses the state to keep the capitalists in check as they progress and develop along socialist lines. This stark difference in which class is in power is shown with immense popular support in the PRC:
I'm a big defender of China when the "China Bad" crowd comes out, but this graph is meaningless beyond what people's perceptions are.
Real trade unions are banned. All must be part of the party, workers rights are routinely not enforced, and given the lattitude the government has to act, there isn't really much of an excuse.
The CCP enjoy massive support, though, this is undeniable. The reasons for this support is debatable and vary from person to person.
I for one, very much enjoy when the Chinese government does things in line with my socialist ideals. But let's not pretend like they're actually keeping the capitalists in check. There are many, many billionaires in China, something that ought not be possible under an actual socialist country.
It doesn't take a genius to look at their system of voting to quickly conclude that you don't really have a say, the People's Congress functions as a rubber stamp for what the inner party has already decided.
Again, my opinions aside, people in China generally are supportive of the government at this present time.
The graph shows that people generally feel they have more democratic input in China than peoole do in the US, France, and Britain. That's a valuable metric.
Secondly, the All-China Federation of Trade Unions is a real union, it fights for worker's rights against the capitalists that still exist in the primary stage of socialism they are in. Yes, it is affiliated with the CPC, and that's a good thing. If unions were allowed to be independent, then they would be directly supported by western governments against the socialist system. China exists in a world where capitalism is dominant and constantly undermining socialism.
Third, capitalists are kept in check. They exist, including billionaires, because China is in the primary stage of socialism. The point of socialism isn't to make everything equal, in the context of the overall economy China is still dramatically improving the rights and well-being of its working class as its core focus. As China develops, private property is sublimated into public property, if the capitalists had control then this wouldn't really be possible at scale.
Overall, I think you should research more on why China does things you may not agree with on the surface. Usually it's either for an understandable reason, or is something that is bad, but is improving (like LGBTQIA+ rights).
The state used the police to crush the working class when they demanded the money from the banks that invested it in a runaway housing scam.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jul/11/china-violent-clashes-at-protest-over-frozen-rural-bank-accounts
You are believing in a fantasy. There are countless countries around the world that are arguably more socialist than China without even calling themselves such. Quite frankly, I trust actions and numbers more than words.
Using a western, anti-communist news source for a report on how China is supposedly crushing the working class? Color me shocked! You have no points.
We Need To Talk About "Authoritarianism"
It's possible, but it's objectively not the case. Don't take my word for it though, it's what people actually living in China say.