I think there is more nuance here. In all my direct interactions with Chinese people in business they have been polite, responsive and intelligent. I still get messages from them long after I left the industry I was in.
The CCP however is a different story. I am opposed to them as much as I am opposed to any person or organization that seeks to usurp or silence an individuals right to self determination. There are certainly domestic threats to that right which are greater than the CCPs.
China and the CPC are as intertwined as America and the Democratic Party or America and the Republican Party. The China of today would not exist without the CPC.
America would exist without either party. People forget that the meaning of each party has shifted throughout the years. Parties have even gone extinct when a viable third party alternative was available. But they aren’t central to American life. More than one third of our population doesn’t even affiliate with a party.
The CCP has done everything in their power to make themselves central to Chinese life. But they are a party and not China itself, even they are replaceable. Taiwan is a good example of how democracy could work within a modern Chinese society. Which is why the CCP wants to bring them to heel.
Here's the question, when we talk about China the country, are we talking about the Chinese people, or their government? Because I have very different answers for the two.
I've grown up with and worked with Chinese Americans, both from mainland China and Taiwan. I want to see them have freedom of speech and expression and ability to criticize the government, so I have to be adversarial to the CCP. I can't imagine liking Chinese people and the CCP simultaneously, knowing what the party does -- I want the latter reformed so the former can thrive.
I also think there's a lot of innovation for the human race as a whole if China and the US are rivals, not adversaries. Friendly competition leads to scientific advancements without compromising on joint research and efforts.
The thing is, you can’t really separate the Chinese people from the CCP. Something like 7% of the population are members and the party has very high approval ratings. That’s not just because the CCP are good propagandists either. Rather the living conditions for the average Chinese person have improved dramatically over the course of only a few decades thanks to policy decisions made by the CCP. As such, opposing the CCP and wanting the Chinese people to thrive may be seen as a highly contradictory perspective to people living in mainland China.
That's racist and orientalist af. A people and their government are never equated. They're always separate things. That's literally sinophobia. Will you tell us that PRC citizens overseas are equal to their government as well, justifying their repression overseas?
The tankies are it in force today. Single party corporate and state alignment with a dominant cultural twist. It's the definition of fascism including both economic and social elements.
You would have a field day with the comment section for this article on Lemmy.ml lol. I'd love to see someone with more energy than me try to fight some of the idiocy going on over there.
Recent polling from The Economist and YouGov shows the startling difference in Americans’ views of China by age group. Roughly 25% of Americans aged 18 to 44 said they view China as an enemy, compared with about 52% of those 45 and over (see chart). Almost as many young Americans said they view China as “friendly” as those who said the country was an “enemy”. Just 4% of older Americans see China as friendly.
Meanwhile, views of China among partisans are shifting. Republicans have long been more likely than Democrats to view China as an adversary. But both parties have become more hawkish. When Donald Trump took office in 2017, just 10% of Democrats and 20% of Republicans said they believed China to be an enemy. As of last week, 34% of Democrats and 48% of Republicans took this view.
Two questions come to mind: will this demo get out and vote? And if they do who can they vote for that will make policy decisions in line with this viewpoint?
They never see any of that, nor do you. All news is filtered through the big western agencies, AP/Reuters/AFP, to ensure that only the approved narrative is reported.