276
submitted 2 years ago by BrikoX@lemmy.zip to c/worldnews@lemmy.ml
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[-] EnderWi99in@kbin.social 68 points 2 years ago

What is with the China apologists in this thread? Wtf??

[-] fishtacos@lemmy.ml 31 points 2 years ago

I found this to be a decent enough primer: https://medium.com/@bobbyarlan/a-case-study-in-racist-anti-chinese-sentiment-fuelled-by-american-bots-and-western-propaganda-f0a69978d568

A decent TLDR: The article argues that anti-Chinese propaganda spread by the U.S. and Western media is fueling racist sentiment. Claims of mass detention of Uyghurs are based on flawed studies and sources like Adrian Zenz, a far-right Christian fundamentalist. Atrocity propaganda is a common tactic used by the U.S. to justify wars. The U.S. is threatened by China's economic rise and technological progress, so it is trying to portray China negatively and prepare public opinion for a potential conflict. However, most of the world sees China positively and as an economic opportunity, making a new Cold War against China unlikely to succeed

In short, a lot of information about China that has come out of Western news media has been proven to be based on known biased sources, known anit-China rhetoric, and/or outright lies. It's difficult to prove/disprove of any information specifically, that takes time and reporting, but a lot of people see the anti-China pattern in BBC reporting, and tend to dismiss it because of known history.

[-] MacroCyclo@lemmy.ca 25 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

I think this flies a bit too far in the other direction. China is totalitarian. It is not a democracy. It is also increasingly antagonizing nations abroad. I think it is valid to consider it a threat if you are any other nation, period.

Edit: Kinda like Russia

[-] OurToothbrush@lemmy.ml 18 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

How many seats are in the highest legislative body?

What rights and responsibilities do autonomous regions within China have?

What is the most distributed government legislative committee and what is their role in the government?

[-] yeather@lemmy.ca 10 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

1, Xi Xinping and whatever he says, doesn't matter how many show ponys you fill the room with.

  1. In the end they all answer to the whims of the central government, which can change or remove and rights and responsibilities autonomous regions within China have.

  2. See answer one.

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[-] GameGod@lemmy.ca 19 points 2 years ago

Or you know, you could just listen to someone who was in an internment camp:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/04/muslim-minority-teacher-50-tells-of-forced-sterilisation-in-xinjiang-china

(Also your summary sounds like ChatGPT)

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[-] SpooneyOdin@lemmy.ml 27 points 2 years ago

I see it all over Lemmy unfortunately. I think it is because Lemmy is still relatively fringe and it is where lots of pro communism communities emerged. Normally, I find it actually pretty refreshing to see more left wing stuff but the pro China (or at least the kneejerk reactions to anything anti China) to be exhausting.

To be fair, I used to see a lot of it on Reddit as well. I think they are just a bigger proportion percentage wise on Lemmy so you see much more of it.

[-] I_Has_A_Hat@lemmy.ml 30 points 2 years ago

It's a bit of a mixed bag. There are a lot of pro-China comments that are just... Well they either drank the kool-aid or are dishing it out. Especially when it comes to social policies.

On the other hand, China has been making significant technological accomplishments that you just don't hear about in Western media. They've made a lot of advancements in spaceflight and manufacturing processes that humanity as a whole could benefit from if we were more cooperative. And that's not even mentioning Nuclear Power.

China is WAY ahead of the rest of the world when it comes to new nuclear power. They're the only ones with Gen 4 reactors, the only ones working on Thorium reactors, and are on track to build over 100 new nuclear plants over the next few years. China is to nuclear power as the US is to weapons; sure other countries might be tinkering with some stuff, but there's really no comparison when they're doing more than the rest of the world combined.

I wish there were more unbiased sources. Unfortunately, there's usually only one of two sides. Either you get news from China which usually boils down to "We're amazing and nothing we do is ever bad or wrong. Anyone saying otherwise is just lying because they're jealous/afraid of our wild success!" Or you get news from the US/West that's basically "China is a totalitarian poo-country that's on the verge of collapse. They contribute nothing to global advancement and the only thing they're good for is making cheap, poor quality, crap."

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[-] EchoCT@lemmy.ml 21 points 2 years ago

I'd take the study a lot more seriously if the people financing it weren't literally tied to the US/UK governments...

[-] yeather@lemmy.ca 11 points 2 years ago

We'd all take China a lot more seriously if it wasn't literally interring people in reeducation camps and ruling over people's lives like it's 1984.

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[-] socsa@lemmy.ml 16 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

First day on Lemmy? There are quite a few suspiciously active trolls on here, especially on worldnews communities

Edit - ah right on cue

[-] yogthos@lemmy.ml 10 points 2 years ago

Thanks for providing an example of a self referential comment.

[-] psilocybin@discuss.tchncs.de 15 points 2 years ago

This, my friend, is the absense of neocon/neolib censorship and propaganda that you were so used to on corporate social media.

Isn't it great?

[-] socsa@lemmy.ml 17 points 2 years ago

Strange, I never had any trouble on Reddit talking about socialism.

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[-] pinkdrunkenelephants@lemm.ee 11 points 2 years ago

They're paid astroturfers and they don't belong on Lemmy. Why the server admins refuse to police them, I just don't know.

[-] fishtacos@lemmy.ml 21 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Wow, talk about conspiracy theories...

"Every person who doesn't participate in Sinophobi is paid off by the Chinese government"

Like, really? You actually believe that? Was 911 an inside job? How hot DOES jet fuel get??? Is Q-anon real? Is the earth flat?

If you've ever debunked a conspiracy theory, you should reconsider the idea that maybe, just maybe, not everyone hates China. It's probably more likely than you think..

Edit: And then they edited their comment to be more defensive instead. Perfect.

[-] yogthos@lemmy.ml 19 points 2 years ago

Imagine thinking there are paid astroturfers on a tiny niche platform with a few thousand users. We have some utterly insane people here after reddit migration.

[-] pinkdrunkenelephants@lemm.ee 11 points 2 years ago

Imagine thinking governments, fascists and PR agencies wouldn't migrate to wherever people choose to hang out and continue their decades-long campaign to brainwash people into believing whatever is convenient for them.

[-] yogthos@lemmy.ml 14 points 2 years ago

I see you don't understand the concept of niches. Governments, fascists, and PR agencies are going to spend their effort where it makes the most impact. Only a brainwashed person couldn't comprehend that people could legitimately disagree with their world view, and anybody who thinks different from them must therefore be a paid troll.

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[-] aehnh@lemmy.ml 19 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Me and the boys waiting for the ccp checks liberals said we were getting:

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[-] mim@lemmy.sdf.org 57 points 2 years ago

I'm just gonna sit back and enjoy the tankies from lemmygrad denying or trying to justify this one as well. 🍿

[-] yata@sh.itjust.works 19 points 2 years ago

*Tankies from lemmygrad and lemmy.ml.

[-] mim@lemmy.sdf.org 19 points 2 years ago

That's true.

However, I feel like the ones from lemmygrad are slightly more unhinged.

[-] abraxas@lemmy.ml 11 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Is there a way to jump instances and bring all your content/moderation with you? I really didn't sign up for tankie voat, but I have growing communities in this instance.

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[-] OurToothbrush@lemmy.ml 44 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Its a very weakly sourced state sponsored media article reporting on their state enemy. You have to be willfully credulous to believe their claims without further proof.

[-] Durotar@lemmy.ml 27 points 2 years ago

It doesn't mean that reports are false just because two states are enemies (which is an exaggeration).

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[-] iknt@lemmy.ml 34 points 2 years ago

Sample size: 58 people

18 in the U.K., 28 in Turkey, and 12 in Thailand.

The authors wish to extend their gratitude to the individuals and organisations who supported this research by providing concrete feedback for revisions on the report, offering suggestions and advice at the planning stages, and offering ongoing collaborative and moral support while conducting this research: Elise Anderson, Campaign for Uyghurs, Freedom House, Tim Grose, Ondřej Klimeš, Julie Millsap, David O’Brien, the Rights Practice, Radio Free Asia, Isabella Rodriguez, David Stroup, Hannah Theaker, Emily Upson, the Uyghur Human Rights Project, the Uyghur Transitional Justice Database, the World Uyghur Congress, the Xinjiang Documentation Project, the Xinjiang Victims’ Database, and Adrian Zenz.

Author

Yes, very trustable! /s

[-] fishtacos@lemmy.ml 12 points 2 years ago

This is so key to propaganda. When researchers do a study on 58 people, you can barely claim you have a good representation of the population. And even in that case, if they are good, high quality researchers, they aren't pushing any opinion, just stating facts. It's just that 58 people can't represent the population well, It's just a starting point.

Now if we're talking about an opinion and not just stated facts, 58 people is hardly representative, easy to manipulate, especially when you don't have to cite specifics, just conclusion.

Okay, let's assume these are facts. 58 people were threatened, etc. This is still propaganda. Opinion, and interpretation can push the conversation in one direction or the other very heavily.

For example, let's draw a comparison to a system that people find more familiar (For westerners, at least), such as the united states police system or the FBI. How many US citizens are threatened to stop talking when pushing the limits of conversation publicly (Say, about calling out the inhumane treatment of others by the US military)? How many people have talked publicly about being approached by the FBI, or said they can't comment on their interactions with the FBI, or of some private corporation that paid them off to keep their mouths shut about some insider deal, money laundering, or underage sex scandal? Governments and even private citizens coming after people who are talking shit publicly happens in capitalist states all the time.

And that's just taking into account regular people who live in western countries. How about an even more direct comparison? The Uyghurs are Muslims that participated in terrorism in China, but the United States had Muslim terrorists of their own, what did they do? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_rights_in_post-invasion_Iraq You can find all kinds of resources about the human rights violations that the united states participated in against the muslin people, even in western sources such as wikipidia, and others https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2023/03/iraq-20-years-since-the-us-led-coalition-invaded-iraq-impunity-reigns-supreme/ have lots and lots of facts surrounding this.

"rules for thee, but not for me" comes to mind.

Sorry didn't mean to unload on you. I'm vehemently agreeing!

[-] queermunist@lemmy.ml 27 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Yes, the reason diaspora isn't speaking out against China is because there's a conspiracy to silence them.~

There can't possibly be any other explanation.~

[-] socsa@lemmy.ml 12 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

As someone who legitimately has family in China and who visits them and speaks to them in Mandarin, there is 100% a chilling effect caused by CCP autocracy.

But I am eager to hear how a bunch of people who have never been and don't speak the language know more about this because they read a pamphlet.

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[-] jackpot@lemmy.ml 26 points 2 years ago

lmao we have chinese apologists jesus thats so sad

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[-] eyy@lemm.ee 25 points 2 years ago

ah, the north korean playbook

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[-] SpooneyOdin@lemmy.ml 17 points 2 years ago

This is pretty crazy if true. I wonder if it has any connections to the alleged "ghost" CCP police stations that were reported around in Canada. I believe it was being claimed the stations were being used to bully Chinese people that were in Canada.

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[-] yogthos@lemmy.ml 12 points 2 years ago

PSA: these kinds of threads are a great way to create blocklists of western bootlickers and trolls.

[-] mub@lemmy.ml 15 points 2 years ago

Curious. Seems to work both ways.

[-] DauntingFlamingo@lemmy.ml 10 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Don't feed the troll. He's an actual professional troll who will try his hardest to drag you into a debate. I like to just keep editing my comments with new links that refute his claims, and that's when he totally loses it and gives me -30 and himself +55 updoots on a post with a grand total of 18 votes. He's really aggressive but he's not very good at his job.

Edit: I can see he has gone through my post history and downvoted everything so I have 0 or negative karma or whatever it's called.. and he did it a week afterwards. He's a spiteful little troll, isn't he? I don't care about updoots. You can't silence the truth, you dumb fuck.

[-] socsa@lemmy.ml 14 points 2 years ago

Most notably, they will not actually engage in any real discussion on these topics. They only want to shut down discussion by calling everyone brainwashed. They will offer not a single critical word against China or Russia, past present or future. Obviously this analysis is very noteworthy, and the conjecture that these societies are above reproach makes for a very good faith argument. Especially when combined with the intellectually honest strategy of removing their opponent's agency by calling them brainwashed. Truly a master debater.

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[-] yogthos@lemmy.ml 10 points 2 years ago

I don't have any issue with that, the less toxic people I have to interact with on here the happier I'll be. I encourage anybody who finds my comments and posts upsetting to block me and move on.

[-] socsa@lemmy.ml 14 points 2 years ago

Everyone is brainwashed except for you.

[-] yogthos@lemmy.ml 13 points 2 years ago

Nah, just people who uncritically regurgitate propaganda, and screech about everybody who disagrees with them being a Russian puppet and a tankie whatever that means.

[-] OurToothbrush@lemmy.ml 13 points 2 years ago

The most offensive part of being called a tankie is being called British.

[-] yogthos@lemmy.ml 10 points 2 years ago
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this post was submitted on 31 Jul 2023
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