BRIC'd Up

[u/Ok_Review_4179]

Travelling through Africa you pass big billboards standing guard outside small villages with some message like : 'the People's Republic of China has generously donated ten thousand satellite TVs to the proud village of Lufuwu' . In the bottom right is stamped a seal of some sub-sub committee , one of many , such as : the 'China Foreign Lands Cultural Upliftment Programme' . You find thousands of these .

They have distributed massive loans across the developing world . The common African consensus is that , although everyone knows these gifts are poisoned , that mineral rights and fishing fields and shipping lanes are being held as collateral when the loans are inevitably defaulted upon , at least they provide something , for in Africa the present is not stable , the future is not promised . Western NGOs fly over to Afrika , stay for two days and proclaim that they were Kenyan in a past life , braid their hair , learn three words , vomit after eating mielie meal , and immediately launch into a zealous tirade of how to feed and school children , treat illness , and be happy , whereas China learns the language , offers money , attempts to listen , and builds bridges , power plants , telecommunication , schools , and roads .

In Lesotho China is building a freeway . In Malawi China has built a great school where Mandarin , martial arts , and Chinese manners are taught . Even a decade ago , my one high school time held a cultural exchange programme , where one of our teachers went to China to teach , and a Chinese teacher came to teach us Mandarin . In Cape Town , the South African Navy , useless and impoverished , is in the process of leasing the Simon's Town port to some superpower . The US navy was interested . The money would be supreme . But South Africa is BRIC'd up , aligned with the global east (Brazil notwithstanding) , and I have no doubt that it is China that will use Simon's Town as its primary Naval base for the Atlantic .

In the game of geopolitical chess , China seems to have their pieces in perfect place . The oldest country bar none , they as nearly always seemed several steps ahead , and are now in the process of building the biggest navy in the world . Whereas the modern West seems to produce more and more liquid wealth , China produces most of the world's steel , machinery , automotive parts , furniture , building blocks .
At home they have achieved (and I acknowledge my ignorance , I have not yet been there , and do not know the lived experience) relative cultural monogamy , linguistic unity , and a strong national identity .
A westerner who considers personal liberties and individual domination to be the height of sophistication will accuse a Chinese factory worker of being akin to a drone in a hive , and yet we know bees : they are the most perfect society in the world . A eusocial world would be a spiritual singularity .

If I sound like I am making some Ethical case for China's foreign policy that is not my intention . Economic colonialism is perverse , but one cannot be so naïve as to think that the chess games of power that have been played for thousands of years will cease now . We can only respect the player , enter our bets , protect our little gooncaves and the personal few friends and families we are pretty sure are sentient , and chart which way the wind is blowing . And it seems to be blowing back to Zhōnghuá . I'm BRIC'd Up .

[u/rsp_is_gay]

Has anyone who fellates China on rs subs ever been to China for any length of time?

China stans remind me so much of the worst contemporary baseball fandom, Mets fans, in that no fan of the Mets lives in New York is seems.

[u/Hexready → u/rsp_is_gay]

Actually so stupid, china is very similar to America if you zoom out a bit, just on the other side of the world. It's a great place with its own ups and downs. ( yes I lived there)

[u/rsp_is_gay → u/Hexready]

I lived there for two years which is why I ask. Many of the people who glaze it have, at best, visited for a week or two (most places seem idyllic on vacation).

I think it's ham-fisted to say that China is like the US. Many aspects of culture at large are globalized (i.e. westernized) so it's trivial to point those aspects out when discussing foreign cultures.

For the record I love China and Chinese culture, weirdo tankies who have never visited irritate me to no end though.

[u/Hexready → u/rsp_is_gay]

idk I'm not native to either country, so as an outside observer ( 4 ish years in China, and over a decade in the US) both are pretty similar to me in the zoomed-out sense. The cultures aren't really similar but people's lives are to me at least.

If I could take the positives of both countries add it together, I might just make the perfect society, while if I take the worst of both I would make something evil.

I prefer the us, probably only because fundamentally I'm a foreigner, but I don't live the average life of a us or Chinese citizen, I'm in a quite privileged position.

I was also mostly replying because this is a US-centric space and people like to pretend the us doesn't do the same things china does on a global front.