Huh? This sounds a lot like CCP arguments. Don't meddle in our affairs and tell us what to do. Problem is that China is practicing economic colonialism in Africa as we speak and sabotaging and stealing tech from western corporations and govts at an unprecedented rate. Fortunately, the world is starting to wake up to the Chinese thuggery. China's days of breaking international law unpunitively are numbered.
Really no point arguing against this. My point is that Africa, China, can handle themselves for their own business dealings and don't need Americans (myself included) to protect them. Anything else is propaganda, meddling, whatever you want to call it.
It's not as simple as that. China has already debt-trapped Sri Lanka into giving up a port and is eyeing other African nations as it projects its navy across the Indian ocean trying to threaten India. Maybe the corrupt African leaders can give up African interests to China and it's their business, but Chinese interest obviously doesn't end there. Hence, it is, and should be of concern to all the other national interests in the area and globally. Sorry, China will not be allowed to do as they please considering their track record.
are you seriously asking this about the same govt that has trampled on tibetan rights and is holding a million muslims in an internment camp?
Since you have brought up the subject of the genocidal CCP having the support of the Chinese population, let me ask you this: isn't it true that the feeling amongst Han Chinese is that they are superior to other races and and cultures, and are meant to rule them? Isn't that the policy CCP is following now?
Too many red herrings to follow up but how about the implied assertion that a huge proportion of jailed Americans are there solely because of their age and skin color? If true then this does indeed sounds likes a horrific mega-scandal that screams for redress rather than, for instance, the pursuance of issues relating to possible interference in the last election. Question of priorities!
By the way you forgot to mention the thousands of executions that take place in China according to Amnesty International. Exact figures are kept secret of course. How does that stack up with the US?
I am Indian, and I know precisely the story of Tibetans. There are many of them living in India now since they've lost their homes. China invaded India twice, so don't think I don't know Chinese superiority complex.
Of course there are nutcases everywhere, but nowhere else a government this powerful has a mandate to undermine human rights at a global level without any opposition from their own people. CCP is following a racist genocidal agenda with full support of a majority of their people, and they won't stop at the Uighurs or tibetans.
This is right out of the CCP bullshit arguments textbook. They automatically assume that you are an American, and state that you have no idea of what you're talking about since you are brainwashed by the "western mainstream media." The blatant projection here is laughable since the Chinese are the ones censored and brainwashed by their govt.
Another thing they love to bring up is the black prison population in the States to compare it to Chinese prison camps where people are thrown in forever without any trials. Atleast in America, they can protest and hold lawmakers accountable by voting them out. Any meaningful argument with these guys is pointless since they are just govt mouthpieces.
In my comment there is no assumption on nationality. I am just comparing and contrasting.
I got my information regarding how many young black men are in jail from black Americans and one white American lady. I think you need to take up the challenge of citing a source of some Chinese 'communist' ranting on about the US black prison population. From my knowledge of the world these Chinese folk have been rather too quiet about the injustices of the US 'justice system' and I wish they were demanding something was done. Please prove me wrong that they are not as mute as I believe them to be.
Regarding your paranoia, I am a citizen of planet earth and definitely not Chinese in any way. I am too vegetarian and too English speaking to want to spend time in China's remote provinces. I am old enough to understand that nothing said by Western politicians is likely to be true. Not being easily duped and gullible does not make me some person that has been brainwashed by the Chinese Communist Party or a 'govt mouthpiece'.
You must appreciate that there are people in the West that study history more than you do and that opinions that differ to your own are not the result of 'communist brainwashing'.
Rather than bust blood vessels writing missives about the lack of due process in China, chill out and spend some time reading about the history of the law in China. I think you will find the history quite fascinating.
I will address your last point since all the things before that are presumptious babble. Regardless of history of law in China, Chinese prison camps and internment camps are well-documented.
judging from the Chinese I personally know I'm fairly sure they do!
fwiw not just China, many Europeans (and nearly all Russians) I know think this way too. I too fall into that trap from time to time (either lashing out at the US, or China as a result). It's all pointless waste of breadth in the end. The problem from my perception is that the US is a superpower which faces difficulty in this new information age covering all its crimes the way it did 30 or 50 years ago. News of wrong-doing (which all governments do) spread like wildfire and are amplified by foreign propaganda (whether it's this article or FVEY member Australia screaming its head off about the natsec risks posed by Huawei - "screaming on behalf of the US" to amplify the message).
The beauty of Wikileaks, and twitter is that we can see the real faces of the players and their agenda (in every country). And it isn't pretty at all. In US case, news about secret prisons, (black sites), gitmo, Abu-Ghraib etc are much more depressing (than if we learn about such things happening by the hands of China). Maybe because the US is the strongest player and has sold itself (through hollywood) as a liberator and we want to see them as good. Or even a role model ... Instead we got corporations and lobbyists controlling who gets to play war. People like Trump/Bolton/Pence don't exactly portray the US in a positive light. Not long ago it was Bush/Wolfowitz/Rice/Cheney (even worse) and Obama did nothing to curb surveillance and incarceration of minorities. Obama had an easy job in regard to foreign policy. All he had to do is "not be Bush" - that's how much Bush was hated in Europe.
I'm not having a go at the US. To me any nation state sucks. But if somebody starts a conversation with me today and has an American accent, I'm now quick trying to find out who they're backing - just so I know what kind of level of crazy it is that I'm dealing with.
Isn't the "effort and risk" usually what those in favor of patents propose? Lest there's no compensation of the inventor for their effort, and we stop having inventions or something?
A problem that bothers me is high prices of real-estate on the west-coast of Canada due to money laundering, tax avoidance, and governmental complacency. How can I address this using tech?
If you have a hammer and can't find any nails, looking around for other things to hit is unlikely to be a productive activity.
You've identified a serious, complex issue and you care about improving the situation. That's an excellent beginning. Go to your local library and find a book on systems thinking/analysis such as Thinking in Systems by Donella Meadows. Start to understand how all the pieces fit together and what sort of changes will help and what will make the problem worse (you will be surprised!). Your tech experience will be extremely helpful here.
That course looks great. Keep in mind that you are unlikely to "learn" anything "new". It's a process; do this, do that. Put some effort here, think about that stuff there. And then you start to see interactions and cause/effect patterns that you didn't see before as well as behaviors that work completely differently than you previously believed.
To solve problems effectively, you shouldn't try and preconceive the solution. If you really want to solve the problem, you'll need to immerse yourself in the problem and field and figure out what are some causes of the problem that you can affect.
You've distilled the problem down to "money laundering, tax avoidance, and governmental complacency" but do other issues like zoning, foreign investment, lack of suitable space, etc contribute?
While it's possible to solve problems in fields that you don't work in, it's less common. If you want to affect real-estate prices on the West coast of Canada, you should dive into the real estate industry and most likely some obvious inefficiencies will pop out that can be solved.
I can't claim that he did or did not, I quoted him simply as I first heard it from him in this form. And it's not really important who come up with the idea first, in some way it is really an obvious thing, but we all forget about it too often. With the rise of Internet we stopped comparing ourselves with people around us locally, instead now you compare yourself with the whole damn planet. Instead of competing with few hundreds or thousands, you've now set yourself against billions of people - and that's a recipe for depression.
The internet is sort of like a local neighborhood in that regard, it's just that your neighbor next door is The World's Biggest Genius in [whatever your passion is] and down the road there's a few more contenders.
Now you could look at others too but when everyone around you talks about the same few people over and over, it's hard not to think that "unless I'm as good as them, I don't matter".
