You really must be quite westernized if you can't talk about China anymore without using the US as a reference point, and have to rely on Westerners spreading lies about China in service of their own agenda to speak for you.
Well done, you completely ignored the actual argument in order to resort to ad hominem, while ignoring the fact that the first source doesn't use the US as the major comparison point, while also making evidence-free statements such as "westerners spreading lies". Exactly as I would expect from you.
Most of the online discussion centered around China is just US domestic political projection using an imaginary China as a mirror, or as a counterfactual which doesn't exist, and then there's the obvious propaganda too.
RnaudBertrand seems to be using China only as an imaginary counterexample to the US invasion of Afghanistan.
If you were just an average Westerner, mistaking that Twitter thread for an informed perspective would be an understandable mistake, buy I think you should be able to do better.
> Exactly as I would expect from you.
Interesting, I didn't think you'd even recognize my username.
> Interesting, I didn't think you'd even recognize my username.
You are right here, in my haste I recognized you for someone else who has been attacking me a lot lately. I apologize.
> The typical American answer to problems: bombs and bullets.
The US is a secondary supporting point, not the main point, which is Afghanistan and its terrorism problem.
> Which is a lie, carelessly slandering the policemen who valiantly risked their lives in the fight against terrorism.
This is an oversimplification rather than a lie. In the context of that tweet, what was referred to was:
1. Sending your military to foreign territory to kill the source of radicalization there.
2. The scale of the effort.
While there have definitely been fighting in Xinjiang, it cannot be compared to the likes of the War on Terror. The former's violance was at least constrained to people who shoot back, while the latter involved the killing pf many innocent people.
While you criticize the comparison with the US here, to completely take the US out of the picture in a description about Xinjiang would not be fair. For one, the US is a contributing factor in the creation of the terrorism problem in Xinjiang. Second, when one talks about counter-terrorism efforts, it only makes sense to compare the pros and cons of different approaches that have already tried. After all, it is a hard problem in which hard choices have to be made; nobody has succeeded in an approach which is completely free of violance or any kind of coercion.
I suppose you could also compare to France, but I don't think it would make sense to skip over the most high-profile example.
> So no, I'm not a CCP supporter. What I am, is being tired of all the anti-China propaganda that's on the one hand merely biased and prejudiced misrepresentations, and on the other hand a deliberate manufacturing of consent for war. I am tired of my home being constantly misrepresented and villified.
I mistakenly assumed that you would be against oversimplification.
Hey I did try to invite him to talk to me in private where I can explain a complex situation more thoroughly. But if one is only "kinda interested, but not very interested" and wants a quick summary in an HN post then one has to be contend with oversimplifications.
I understand why you criticize me, but rather than criticism I'd like to hear solutions. I had a conversation with my contact from Xinjiang yesterday (who regularly talks to westerners to explain the situation) and he told me how basically nobody in the west is interested in the complex truth; everybody wants simplifications. Which really limits the explanations he can give.
So, what is your solution? If you have a link to a better summary that you believe is
1. more accurate,
2. able to explain things from a westerner's perspective and able to provide the paradigm changes needed for proper understanding,
3. yet short enough to satisfy readers that are only casually interested,
then I'm all ears and I'll consider recommending your source next time.
