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.

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[–] SocialistDovahkiin@hexbear.net 6 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

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.