On the one hand, hooray for supporting the development of infrastructure in Africa and stuff. On the other hand, booooo for being a top trading partner with the Zionist Entity, and selling drones to Indonesia, and all that.
So what the Hell do you make of it all! Like I get that there’s this term called “realpolitik” which is somehow relevant, but I’d like a longer explanation than just one word. Like how does the good and the bad fit together at its core?
You could certainly write tomes about this topic — many people have done exactly that — and maybe I’m being a bit incurious to expect someone to serve me a quick answer on a silver platter instead of diving into as many articles and PDF books as I can get my hands on… But I’m also just kind of tired of having such extremely underdeveloped views on the most populous AES state and country in general, after I came to unlearn or mistrust whichever views I’d had on China previously.
China only has two allies: the People’s Liberation Army and the PLA Navy.
That’s all you need to know. The history of modern PRC is shaped by its unique position of being on a precipice and caught between the imperialist struggles between the US and the USSR during the Cold War.
Note: in China, it is not controversial to say that the USSR had imperialist ambitions against China, even if I don’t personally agree with it.
It has always been a balancing act. When the US is strong, we support the USSR as a counterbalance force against US imperialism. And when the USSR is threatening us, we side with the US to get rid of the USSR.
Play between the interests of both sides and win - that’s all you need to know about modern China’s geopolitical stance. This is the means of survival of a weak country caught between two strong powers. We have had 5000 years of history - the rise and fall of countless ruling regimes spanning dozens of dynasties - to learn from. It boils down to pragmatism and survival.
The success of modern China is a testament of how well this strategy has worked. After all, it is the PRC, not the USSR, that prevailed in the end.
While I am not even remotely educated enough to weigh in on whether China Good or Bad, I can say that “it worked” is not a good defense of anything in nearly any context. The United States still exists as the world’s (fading, but still) premier warmonger-bully and has for hundreds of years. That’s not going to make me endorse any of their economic policies. I know there are probably other arguments in defense of the PRC’s foreign policy and decisions over the years, I am not trying to argue China Bad. I in fact think it is probably Quite Good. I’m just also a nerd who wants to point out an argument that doesn’t make sense to me.
I’ve always admired China because of their geopolitical strategy and history has proven them right. I wish Mexico has a similar strategy moving forward, we are in an unique position to benefit from China/US cold war.
The history of the CPC was allying with another party that had spend almost a decade trying and almost succeeding in exterminating the CPC, only for the CPC to turn against that party once their common foe has been defeated and the other party had outlived its usefulness.