this post was submitted on 18 Sep 2023
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TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) -- China's military sent 103 warplanes toward Taiwan in a 24-hour period in what the island's defense ministry said Monday was a daily record in recent times.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

China is doing is imperialism is completely at odds with the critical analysis of what imperialism is.

Lol, okay semantic dispute time I guess. What exactly is your definition of a "critical analysis of imperialism".

Autonomous zones do not see any massive influx of Han attempting to replace indigenous peoples. The tibetan autonomous regions does not see this, Xinjiang does not see this. Instead the autonomous zones see a flourishing of indigenous culture

"Han and Uyghurs made up respectively 6.2 and 82.7 percent of Xinjiang’s population. Since 1982, the percentages have changed, to ca. 39–41 percent and 46–51 percent, respectively."

"The Han Chinese population share has increased sharply in the TAR, encouraged by massive subsidies from the central government that exceeded 100 percent of the TAR GDP from 2010 onwards"

Yeah, spending more than 100% of the TARs entire gdp on subsidizing migration..... not insidious at all.

The fact that there are party leaders participating in the management of the autonoumous zone is literally the exact way you would make an autonomous zone and not in anyway imperialist or colonialist.

Lol, and how many of these ethnic minority leaders have ever been in charge of their region?

"In PRC history, ethnic minority leaders have never made it onto the Politburo Standing Committee, the de facto nexus of power in China. For the five ethnic minority autonomous provinces (the Tibetan Autonomous Region, the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, and the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region), the region’s top post of Party secretary has been given to a Han Chinese over the past 35 years, reflecting Beijing’s firm grip on power in minority-populated political units."

Colonization as we know it is distinctly European. Even the Japanese colonization efforts are quite explicitly an effort on the part of the Japanese to emulate the European system. China does not have colonies, it does not engage in colonialism, and it is actively working to dismantle the history of colonialism in its sphere - history that is exclusively European.

Again, this is just a semantic dispute surrounding the meaning of colonialism. Even if colonialism was invented by the west, you yourself admit it was imported and practiced by the Japanese. China is obviously not in a vacuum of influence and is perfectly able to modify western colonialism to suit their needs.

As for Marxists, we engage in self criticism all the time.

Lol, okay....... sure. You just spent a page defending imperialism, but sure.

The idea that parroting USA state department propaganda is self criticism is delusion. The idea that fighting against these narratives is somehow blind automaticity is a combo strawman and ad hominem.

Ahh yes, highlighting data made public by the 2020 Chinese census , automatically means I'm working for the state department.

China itself engaged in self criticism when it acknowledged it's action in Southeast Asia as chauvinistic and they changed their policies to incorporate this criticism.

I'm guessing your talking about their invasion of Vietnam? The one that had running conflicts until the 90s, the one that is still hampering Sino-Vietnamese relations till today?

How is that any different than Tibet, other than Vietnam could actually defend itself?

As for the USA juxtaposing itself against the Nazis, it's not quite the same, because the Nazis were emulating the USA

I would have to partially agree with this to a degree, America has always had fascist leanings. But, it's be a lot more accurate to say that they were emulating Italy.

My rebuttal to this would be that the CCP also emulated the United States when they switched to a socialized market economy.

it's to say they are engaged in fundamentally different projects of state craft and that China's project necessarily involves the opposition to and dismantling of the American project.

Ahh, were bad because you made us be bad...... makes more sense when applied to the soviets..... not so much when applied to Asia. What American scheme required dismantling in Tibet or any of the autonomous regions?

The false equivalency of Chinese actions with USA actions is not self criticism, it's lazy.

Again, my point was that we should develop criticism that are not automatically juxtaposed to western imperialism....... and you just can't allow it.

Real big self criticism moment there bud.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Part 1

Lol, okay semantic dispute time I guess. What exactly is your definition of a “critical analysis of imperialism”.

Definitely not purely a semantic dispute. Have you read Lenin? Lenin's analysis of imperialism still stands as the dominant critical analysis of imperialism, though there has been some recent attempts to update it to adapt to the new form imperialism caused by unipolar hegemony under the name superimperialism or hyperimperialism.

“The Han Chinese population share has increased sharply in the TAR, encouraged by massive subsidies from the central government that exceeded 100 percent of the TAR GDP from 2010 onwards”

The context of that sentence in the report shows that in culturally Tibetan regions outside the Tibet Autonomous Region are showing opposite trends, meaning that "ethnic minorities" are becoming majorities. Clearly this is not a program of Han supremacy but of social integration. Autonomous regions are not meant to be insular, but integrated into one country with multiple systems. Compare this to actual colonialism, where colonists use rape, child separation, enslavement, cultural repression, starvation, land fractionalization, and other techniques to dilute and dismantle ethnic minorities. China is doing none of this. In the TAR, the Tibetan language is used to conduct nearly all business and all education, from grade school through university. That is not colonialism.

Yeah, spending more than 100% of the TARs entire gdp on subsidizing migration… not insidious at all.

It's only insidious if you presuppose the intent.

Lol, and how many of these ethnic minority leaders have ever been in charge of their region?

Well, considering that the top position of party secretary is the only referenced in your quotation, and considering the autonomous regions experience a significant amount of indigenous cultural practices on all dimensions, we must imagine that a Han Chinese party secretary can't possibly be anyone that has the requisite social history to be responsible for that flourishing. Given that, we come to the conclusion that, in fact, the indigenous members of the autonomous regions wield significant influence over their regions and that the party secretary does exactly what a party secretary that is correctly managing an autonomous region would do - ensuring alignment with the state's core strategic direction. That means ensuring the autonomous regions are not infiltrated by Western spoilers, elevating compradors to positions of influence or power, and ensuring party resources are allocated in ways that maintain good relations with the region. If this was not what was happening, then you would be seeing separatists and sympathizers all over the place. Instead what we see is separatists are almost exclusively associated with Western programs for destabilization and most of the population in the autonomous regions are aware of the need for protecting their region against these interests. When the US is training Tibetan terrorists and air lifting them into the region to conduct acts of violence and build terror networks, it's pretty important to maintain a counter-intelligence posture even in autonomous regions.

Again, this is just a semantic dispute surrounding the meaning of colonialism. Even if colonialism was invented by the west, you yourself admit it was imported and practiced by the Japanese. China is obviously not in a vacuum of influence and is perfectly able to modify western colonialism to suit their needs.

I don't think you understand what I'm saying. I'm not saying that the West invented colonialism. I'm saying the colonialism you are talking about is explicitly a phenomenon of Western society. Japan adopting it doesn't stop it from being a Western social project, that would be race essentialism. China is actively working to undo the damage of colonialism qua the Western social phenomenon. It cannot do so by replicating it.

But more to the point, you assume that China would get the same benefit of colonialism that the West did and is therefore incentivized to engage in Western colonialism. This is where your belief about the world does not match the reality of the world. The reality is that Western colonialism is fatally flawed and those countries that engaged in it are being undone by it. China is aware of this and is actively working to bring about the conditions that ensure the contradictions of Western society move inexorably towards the resolution of those contradictions by the undoing of the colonial project. If China were to then begin its own colonial project, it would be doing so with the full knowledge that it would ultimately destroy China. This is what Western chauvinists can't seem to grasp. The anti-imperialist movement is fully aware of how unsustainable the North Atlantic project is. They have no desire to emulate it. Western chauvinists just think that imperialism worked really well and now all the anti-imperialists just want to become imperialists in their own right, because obviously your opponents are guilty of the same things you are guilty of, right? But that's just projection. Modern anti-imperialists movements are based on Marxism-Leninism and Marxism-Leninism-Maoism and are fully aware of the absolute death trap that imperialism is. Their understanding of the world and how it works is that if they engage in imperialism, they will collapse, just like the West is collapsing. Don't project your bad behavior onto China.

Lol, okay… sure. You just spent a page defending imperialism, but sure.

You don't know what imperialism is. Your definition of imperialism is so anemic that it cannot distinguish between imperialism and anti-imperialism.

(Continued in Part 2)

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Definitely not purely a semantic dispute. Have you read Lenin? Lenin's analysis of imperialism still stands as the dominant critical analysis of imperialism

I mean you're entire argument is based upon a different understanding of the word imperialism, I'd say that's pretty semantic.

And yes, I have read Lenin. And while I agree with a lot of the overarching theory of imperialism seen through a capitalist lens, I think it fails to explain the nuance of a lot of historic and modern conflicts. For one I believe that it fails to recognize historic form of imperialism that happened before the industrial age. It's overarching themes can be forced into perspective, but it requires the use of a very plastic definition of capitalism. Secondly, I think that Lenin's theory of imperialism being a stage of capitalism is a product of its time, and is thus is a extremely eurocentric view of history and geopolitics.

The context of that sentence in the report shows that in culturally Tibetan regions outside the Tibet Autonomous Region are showing opposite trends, meaning that "ethnic minorities" are becoming majorities. Clearly this is not a program of Han supremacy but of social integration.

I do t quite see how you've made that you interpretation? It just sounds like the native people of Tibet are being pushed out of their own homeland. How does directing more funding to immigration than the entire autonomous regions gdp equate to social integration?

where colonists use rape, child separation, enslavement, cultural repression, starvation, land fractionalization, and other techniques to dilute and dismantle ethnic minorities

And there isn't a history of reeducation camps that have been accused of rape, family separation, and cultural repression in any autonomous zones?

In the TAR, the Tibetan language is used to conduct nearly all business and all education, from grade school through university. That is not colonialism.

Lol, that's like saying the US didn't colonize Puerto Rico because they still use Spanish as the official language. China has jailed and killed hundreds of priest and nuns in the country, going as far as disappearing their religious leader.

only insidious if you presuppose the intent.

It's only not insidious if you ignore the possibility of ill intent. If the US started funding immigration to Puerto Rico for white people, to the point that it exceeded Puerto Rico s entire gdp..... would you hold your judgment until you understood their intent?

Well, considering that the top position of party secretary is the only referenced in your quotation, and considering the autonomous regions experience a significant amount of indigenous cultural practices on all dimensions

You can't substantiate that claim? There's been plenty of evidence to suggest that indigenous cultures have plenty of limitations imposed by the state.

we must imagine that a Han Chinese party secretary can't possibly be anyone that has the requisite social history to be responsible for that flourishing.

Again, this statement is predicated on an unsubstantiated claim.

Given that, we come to the conclusion that, in fact, the indigenous members of the autonomous regions wield significant influence over their regions and that the party secretary does exactly what a party secretary that is correctly managing an autonomous region would do - ensuring alignment with the state's core strategic direction.

You are basing your entire argument on a post hoc fallacy, you have not substantiated the claim that indigenous people are flourishing.

If this was not what was happening, then you would be seeing separatists and sympathizers all over the place. Instead what we see is separatists are almost exclusively associated with Western programs for destabilization and most of the population in the autonomous regions are aware of the need for protecting their region against these interests.

Lol, okay so your logic is that if there were oppression going on that it would cause separatist movements, but according to you all separatist movements were started by western powers ......... very convenient.

Japan adopting it doesn't stop it from being a Western social project, that would be race essentialism.

Yes, my point is that china is not immune to adopting certain aspects of western colonialism.

China is actively working to undo the damage of colonialism qua the Western social phenomenon.

That's another unsubstantiated claim.

you assume that China would get the same benefit of colonialism that the West did

Ahh yes, now you get to make claims for me. I sense a strawman argument coming around the corner....

China is aware of this and is actively working to bring about the conditions that ensure the contradictions of Western society move inexorably towards the resolution of those contradictions by the undoing of the colonial project. If China were to then begin its own colonial project, it would be doing so with the full knowledge that it would ultimately destroy China.

That would be if the Chinese were practicing the same extraction based colonialism, which is not a claim I've made. I believe the type of colonialism we have seen is more of a slow boil version of Americas expansion west, which involves more assimilation and subjection, and placation until the he local popular can be replaced.

You don't know what imperialism is. Your definition of imperialism is so anemic that it cannot distinguish between imperialism and anti-imperialism.

You don't get to define imperialism as you see fit, Lenin was a brilliant man, but his ideologies aren't all encompassing. Theories like historic materialism may be the best overarching theory of the motives of human conflict, but it leaves a lot to be desired when you try to utilize it to explain every conflict. Yes material needs might be the inherent reason for the racism that started the first war, but the fighters of the following reactionary wars aren't going recognize that, or even remember the material needs being the base for their own racism.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Part 2:

Ahh yes, highlighting data made public by the 2020 Chinese census , automatically means I’m working for the state department.

Just because you regurgitate propaganda doesn't mean you work for them. I would never accuse you of having the requisite skills to work for the US State Department. You cherry picked data from the 2020 census and repeated a narrative around those isolated facts that fits the Western narrative. It's not my fault you can't see through the bullshit.

I’m guessing your talking about their invasion of Vietnam? The one that had running conflicts until the 90s, the one that is still hampering Sino-Vietnamese relations till today? How is that any different than Tibet, other than Vietnam could actually defend itself?

If you don't know the answer to this question, then you don't really have any business talking about this. Ignorance is not a position that must be respected. Your position is based on ignorance, not research and analysis. In essence, you can't tell the difference between Vietnam and Tibet because your analysis is based purely on vibes and moralizing. Suffice to say, Han chauvinism regarding Vietnam was based on the idea that China knows best, whereas the TAR is based on the rectification of that idea that national security and foreign policy have wholly different qualities than domestic policy and that autonomous regions are a dialectical unity between the need for national security and the need for cultural autonomy.

I would have to partially agree with this to a degree, America has always had fascist leanings. But, it’s be a lot more accurate to say that they were emulating Italy.

No, it wouldn't. Hitler wrote in Mein Kampf that one of his goals was to bring the American system of apartheid and dominance to the Slavs. It would not be more accurate to say the 3rd Reich was emulating Italy. The 3rd Reich openly studied Jim Crow, American eugenics, frontier and border town strategies, the Indian reservation system, etc. The 3rd Reich literally grew from the Western European project that the USA perfected and helmed. When the 3rd Reich fell, the movement was absorbed back into the USA where it continued to develop.

My rebuttal to this would be that the CCP also emulated the United States when they switched to a socialized market economy.

Which again is more vibes than anything else. If you actually read Chinese party publications, 5-year plans, and everything else they publish, you would see that nothing could be further from the truth. China is not emulating the US, they are arranging their economic policies to ensnare Western bourgeoisie. In fact, that phase is nearly over, having successfully convinced the Western bourgeoisie to put their capital into China to develop China beyond the West while simultaneously convincing the West to deindustrialize. There is no equivalent to Mein Kampf in China, nothing that analyzes the American or European system as effective or better or something worth reproducing and advancing. There is nothing similar in China to Japan's wholesale adoption of the Western imperialism program (though there is that interesting point in Japanese history where they wholesale adopted the Chinese system of social organization and then tailored it to their context).

Ahh, were bad because you made us be bad… makes more sense when applied to the soviets… not so much when applied to Asia. What American scheme required dismantling in Tibet or any of the autonomous regions?

Oh boy. I don't know if we can have this conversation. I'm not really equipped to be your teacher here. Your question, rephrased is "Why did China make autonomous regions and what does it have to do with America?" The first problems is that you see America as the background but America is the foreground, the background is the North Atlantic project of Euro-centric imperialism through racialized capitalism. If you look at the history of the North Atlantic in the Asia-Pacific region, you're going to see a lot of the things China has done are very closely matched to things that the North Atlantic countries have done. Vietnam was a French colony, and America took the torch from them. The Philippines were occupied by the Spanish, and America took over from them. America turned half of Korea into a wasteland and the other half into a nuclear base, but it took it over from the Japanese who had made Korea a colony. The UK was in India and doing all sorts of anti-communist fuckery at the time but also had spent a century building their imperialism and especially their dominance of China. And then of course you have everything happening in the "Middle East" by the USA, UK, France, and other European imperialists, and that's yet-another-front through which to isolate, encircle, and destabilize China.

China isn't doing anything "bad". There is no "bad". The moral framing is a useless one. My sentence was "China’s project necessarily involves the opposition to and dismantling of the American project." There's a lot to understand from that. First, when China pushes the USA, UK, and Japan out of their space, it's not imperialism, it's anti-imperialism. Second, what China is doing is explicitly NOT replicating what the West did and then tuning it to meet their context. What China is doing is finding a path that involves exactly not replicating the colonialist and imperialist structures that are going to destroy the West because China doesn't want to be destroyed like the West is being destroyed. The fact that you think I was saying "China is bad because other people made them bad" shows you have no idea what China is actually doing.

Again, my point was that we should develop criticism that are not automatically juxtaposed to western imperialism… and you just can’t allow it.

You can't develop self crit from a position of abject ignorance. Stop trying to figure out how to be morally superior by engaging in criticism of the fantasy China that you have not investigated at all and start trying to develop criticism of China by studying it thoroughly and with intellectual honesty. There are plenty of things to criticize China for from a Marxist perspective. You haven't found a single one of those things.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

You cherry picked data from the 2020 census and repeated a narrative around those isolated facts that fits the Western narrative. It's not my fault you can't see through the bullshit.

Did you want me to just cite the entire census? Of course I picked data that supported my argument, that's how debate works..... now it is your job to rebuttal my argument, which isnt just throwing ad hominems btw.

you don't know the answer to this question, then you don't really have any business talking about this. Ignorance is not a position that must be respected.

Lol, you only specified actions in South East Asia. It's of my opinion that there are plenty of actions commuted by china in South East Asia that could be interpreted as negative.

In essence, you can't tell the difference between Vietnam and Tibet because your analysis is based purely on vibes and moralizing.

Lol, Tibet is not in South East Asia my dude.

Suffice to say, Han chauvinism regarding Vietnam was based

Ahh, okay I was right. You were just being sassy.

Hitler wrote in Mein Kampf that one of his goals was to bring the American system of apartheid and dominance to the Slavs. It would not be more accurate to say the 3rd Reich was emulating Italy. The 3rd Reich openly studied Jim Crow, American eugenics, frontier and border town strategies, the Indian reservation system, etc. The 3rd Reich literally grew from the Western European project that the USA perfected and helmed. When the 3rd Reich fell, the movement was absorbed back into the USA where it continued to develop.

Again, I'm not defending America? I agree that he studied and utilized American system of oppression, but the way he organized his economy and structural hierarchy was more influenced by the actions of mousselines Italian fascism.

Which again is more vibes than anything else. If you actually read Chinese party publications, 5-year plans, and everything else they publish, you would see that nothing could be further from the truth. China is not emulating the US, they are arranging their economic policies to ensnare Western bourgeoisie

And a lot of people seem to think that utilizing capitalism to destroy capitalism is like trying to put out a house fire by drowning it in gasoline. I think there are some pretty valid criticism laid out in from victory to defeat by Pao-yu Ching.

There's a lot to understand from that. First, when China pushes the USA, UK, and Japan out of their space, it's not imperialism, it's anti-imperialism.

Lol, that implies that they have some sort of manifest destiny over territories they've never historically controlled..... Tibet is their space? You just reiterated yourself without actually explaining how they justified their expansion. That's unless you are claiming they preemptively expanded their territory to deny possible future western intent.

China doesn't want to be destroyed like the West is being destroyed

Again, you are utilizing an unsubstantiated definition of imperialism that requires the unnecessary prerequisite of a specified type of capitalist intent.

Stop trying to figure out how to be morally superior by engaging in criticism of the fantasy China that you have not investigated at all and start trying to develop criticism of China by studying it thoroughly and with intellectual honesty.

My dude, just because we came to different conclusions doesn't mean I haven't investigated it at all. I could make the same dramatic claims about the willfull ignorance of obvious human rights violations committed against indigenous populations, but of course it would be justified as Western propaganda.

There are plenty of things to criticize China for from a Marxist perspective. You haven't found a single one of those things.

And they would be? You keep making large sweeping claims and then just using a series of logical fallacies to justify them. You haven't really expanded on your claims, You've just regurgitated party platitudes. It's like I'm criticizing US foreign policy and you keep utilizing memos from the state department to justify them. The whole point is I don't believe the state department to be a dependable narrator.

Have a great one, but I don't really feel like breaking down anymore logical fallacies. Nor do I really feel like explaining the historic racial schisms of the east to white people who have never been to the continent. But as a fun experiment, next time you meet a Han from mainland China, ask their opinions about Manchu people. It should be a fun learning experience!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

This has been a great rundown!