While we are on the Yuan dynasty, I would like to add something. In 1292, Yuan Dynasty sent an expeditionary force to Java (now Indonesia) to subjugate Singhasari Kingdom. This kingdom refused to pay tribute to Yuan and maimed one of the emissaries. As you have said, the Chinese, or should I say Mongols (?), didn't want to lose face. The humiliation should be punished accordingly.
I do like your videos, they are very thought provoking. Just one comment on the Jen Psaki quote. She was speaking in the context of President Biden’s threat toward ISIS-K terrorists who killed 170 Afghan civilians and 13 U.S. service members in a suicide bombing attack in Kabul. From what I understand, China punished Uyghur terrorists very harshly and they were executed. Biden has to speak that bluntly, because otherwise he will be seen as weak. I don't like it either, but it's a cultural difference. A government can choose not to discuss problems publicly, but act brutally behind closed door. Many countries have abolished the death penalty. The US and China have not.
@@sabinereynaudsf Yes, exactly! There are cultural differences! Therefore it's important to understand each other and not to be so judgemental as if one is superior to the other(s)!! Peace!!!
I was born in Mexico, my dad is Mexican and my mom was chinese. She was born in Taiwan and until her last day she maintained that Taiwan was part of China.
There is a bit of generational divide in Taiwan on that subject. Majority of people born after the 1980's identifies their nationality as Taiwan, people born before that have a more mixed national alignment. My father came with KMT from China, til the day he died, he still think that Taiwan should eventually re-join China. I grew up towards the end of the martial law era, and the last Chiang President died during my junior high school. I was also very much brought up to think Taiwan should eventually reunify with China, but on the condition that we unify them, not the other way around.. Obviously that kind of thinking becomes ridiculous later on, but China still hasn't given up attempt or hope to re-claim Taiwan, while at this moment, majority of Taiwanese no longer do and wants Taiwan to remain independent while not inviting an invasion, that's where majority of Taiwanese wants to maintain the status quo, and essentially kick the bucket down the road and let the future generation decide the fate of Taiwan.
"The U.S. side declared: The United States acknowledges that all Chinese on either side of the Taiwan Strait maintain there is but one China and that Taiwan is a part of China. *The United States Government does not challenge that position.* " Until now, apparently. That's why the USA has been sending official delegations to Taipei, selling arms to Taiwan, conducting naval exercises off China's coast, adding new military bases in the Philippines, and creating military pacts against China (Quad and AUKUS). The USA has demonstrated its duplicity, much to the dismay of Beijing.
At last, someone articulating the Chinese perspective in a way that an English-speaking person can understand. All power to you, I hope you save us from WW3 : )
There is an important, military, aspect of the Taiwan Question which you did not address. I've read that General Douglas MacArthur once explained that, if the U.S. lost control of Taiwan to the Chinese, then the U.S. military control over the Pacific Ocean becomes untenable and they would have to create a new line of control either around Hawaii, or even along the Californian coastline. The U.S. military still emphasizes this point by openly discussing how Taiwan island fits into their "first island chain", which they want to use to keep China out of the Pacific Ocean (as if they own the world's largest ocean).
Agree and US called taiwan "Unsinkable Aircraft Carrier" in one of its report. To be honest, I pity the PEOPLE in Taiwan, they would be the first to suffer if military unification happens.
I just want to say to you and to the algorithm that I wish there were more thoughtful videos like this, from people who wish to bridge the divide by providing insightful perspectives that help rehumanize those we don't fully understand. Please keep up the great work! It's much needed...
Very good video. As someone from South America, we get fed a lot of this "threat of China's rise" discourse from the pro-American media. A lot of people end up buying into it, sadly. It's great that channels like yours promote alternative views to a mostly Western audience. You gained a follower!
A lot of these so called lies about China are true. She omits to mention so many facts, she is almost a PR person for the CCP. Be very careful about what she says. She also compares Black Lives Matter to the possible invasion of Taiwan
It’s ok the game is long over already, the US already lost, at this point it’s just tantamount to them ‘going down kicking and screaming holding a temper tantrum because they aren’t getting their way’ Smart people like me are already moving our investments towards more Chinese oriented infrastructure (such as new Chinese-Brazilian companies) Smart people likewise have long recognized the transfer of wealth to china
Thank you for your videos. I discovered your channel a week ago and since watched a dozen of your videos. Your analyses are balanced and intelligent! Great job you do! I learn a lot with you.
hello, i'm 3rd generation chinese heritage living overseas and i totally agree with your general breakdown between china and the west. keep up the good work.
I sort of already knew China's motivation but you explained it so well. I kind of wish though that more people have a certain level of common sense and intuition especially politicians. Got yourself a new subscriber here👍
Excellent, and delightfully presented! I'm a South African who has been living in China for 6 years. It has taken time to learn about the culture and people but overtime I have grown to love and appreciate what an amazing nation it is. I hope your content can reach more people in the West.
Congratulations. i enjoy your videos, analysis of China and the "western" viewpoint. I am English, as a child in Liverpool I read a pamphlet (1957) as to the Slave trade , then read up about the Opium wars and realised the reality of how my nation had progressed exploiting both its own peoples and those of the world. I became interested in China in 1971. Amazed at it's regrowth and the achievements of the people, the leadership.
Yes the growth of the censored citizens who dont have legal access to the rest of the worlds search engines.... why do you think that might be? Literally equates to book burning.
@@dunzhen Likely the population that can freely critique their nation in a youtube video without potentially being prosecuted.... Or perhaps even being able to hold up a blank sheet of paper in the street....
@@sgtbeercanyt critique their government then what? get shot and trampled? and then what changes? nothing, too corrupt. dont have the illusion your plutocracy/oligarchy is superior, that's how our media makes you complacent and deflects accountability
thanks for making these videos. I like the approach you try to find the truth from history and culture perspective. But also want to point out that it's not logic to predict how China will behave based on what it had behaved in the past. There are simply too many geographic and political factors at different times for a country/regime to interact with other countries in distinctive ways. If we look at the full history of how China geographically expanded from a limited central region to current mainland China from 3000 years ago, our ancestors conquered/assimilated/eliminated many other ethnic groups.
If you compare what happened in Western history with what happened in China, you may question your statement "it's not logic to predict how China will behave based on what it had behaved in the past". If it is still China, it is predictable.
Great video. I agree it's a polarizing topic. It's also a complex and deep topic. It's hard to cover all of it's subtleties in a short video. I think you did great at bringing some perspectives to the surface.
keep a few things in mind when considering the ideas of this video The first is that she makes no mention whatsoever of how the Taiwanese feel about their relationship with America I have stayed, add that China has, in fact, benefited more than any other society on earth from the international trade, facilitated through the postwar consensus led by America . She also does not mention the feelings of other nationalities in China’s neighborhood, particularly the Vietnamese, the South Koreans, or the Japanese to mention a few. How enthusiastic are they about the prospect of a unipolar world where China is the regional power in their neighborhood?
The biggest issue with people declaring how "Taiwanese feel" is that the west generally doesn't care about how they feel. They don't try to understand the nuanced politics of the DPP, KMT or their platforms. They see Taiwanese position as extremely bifurcative: "either you want reunification or independence." and leave no room for middle. Majority of the people looking in .. tend to marginalize all of Taiwan into one position .. the DPP. As for your mention of SK and Japan .. lets be brutally honest here .. they are deeply rooted with the US and their foreign policy is reliant on cooperating with the US. They are also the vanguard in facilitating most of the US anti-sino posture. Being ideological enemies of China, it is obvious they dont want China to be in any position of power.
I think the most logical comparison between China and USA is : China is more focus on trade while the USA is more on military which nobody could argue that's a false acessment . As trade nation there's absolutely no reason to keep your customers poor or even invade but on the other hand the USA military hegemony is a diffrent story. its serve their intrest to keep their neighbour poor and corrupt that they wont pose a threat in anyway so they can move their military focus on other continent like Asia / Europe
If that is the case, why is China spending so much on its military? why China threatens Taiwan with an invasion? why China threats its neighbirs with war, unless they complay with its demands?
Absolutely so. When you want to trade and invest, you want your partners to grow. When you want to exploit and dominate ove others, you want your 'targets' to be poor and weak. That's a huge difference in mindset!
@@Time4Peace So, why China is investing so much money in the army and threat other countries to bend its will if they just want to trade? Why China's partners remained poor and debt trapped? Your answer failed to provide any reasonable explanation remaining just a baseless statement anchored in the dreamworld rather then reality
If that were true then why did the US make the investments it did in China? China could not have made the rise it did without foreign investment. This is not a good analogy.
Aside from the Yuan/Ming error, it is worth pointing out that the way Zheng He sailed for glory rather than gold was his downfall. Europeans made money from their voyages, which meant they were sustainable. Zheng He did not, so the court Eunochs burnt all his ships. So it is not really an indication for China in the future.
@@rexluk yes, true. But this is not limited to Europeans. Think of Tibet. Did they want to be conquered? But it was a very large country, in self chosen political isolation, very poorly defended, and in a strategic place, with large supply of natural resources. Clearly tempting to take it by force with no effort.
You are too arrogant and shortsighted. China culture looks at long term relationship in business. While the western error pure capitalism short fall looks at business like the stock market, take profit and run who cares the consequences. For example the Ukraine/ Russian war, resulted in energy and food inflation. A short term 4 years cycle of winning a political election. Short term thinking generally always.
Hey siming, really great work, you are like a professional geo politicians, i am surprised that you dont have more subscribers, i suppose you may be new in TH-cam, whatever keep the good work and try to post this kinds of video every week, you will surely get popular.
Thank you so much Siming! It is rare to find someone who can explain the history and facts of China in such clear English. I'm proud of you for maintaining objectivity and letting the world hear China's true voice.
2:29 - it is Ming, not Yuan. Also, this idea that "China was #1" and "did not invade others" is very problematic. China was indeed powerful during its Four Golden Ages and powerful even during the weaker dynasties. I would just be happy by stating something like when China was powerful, it did not seek the same type of biological/race-based conquest and colonialism like European powers. Determining who is #1, #2, and #3 before modern economics is quite hard.
@@SimingLan any time. Please don't think that any of my other messages was directed at you personally, i have nothing bad to say about you. I prey that things go well for you and your people
@@smyzeqari4897 You called her "a Chinese propaganda ministry worker..." How is that not a personal attack? You literally tried to negate everything she said in the video by claiming it's just propaganda...
@@johnyossarian9059 anyone Chinese using TH-cam via VPN (bypassing the Great Firewall) is either a dissident against CCP or a propagandist. There is no middle ground.
Hi thanks for posting on different perspectives. I agree that China is misunderstood due to western media claims. Just one small thing I noticed, Zheng He was from the Ming Dynasty. Tink I heard Yuan dynasty earlier in the video
Chinezoaică frumoasă și deșteaptă! Am văzut câteva vloguri ale tale și am fost impresionat de claritatea și corectitudinea argumentelor tale! Iubesc China! Iubesc oameni ca tine!
Speaking for myself, I am unconcerned about China's rise or America's decline. I'm much more worried about the possibility that China will become a failed state. Which would be catastrophic. Peter Zeihan's arguments are difficult for me to refute.
@@pedrob3953 he certainly does not have a monopoly on sagacity. He does make mistakes. For example, I have heard him say things about AI which are nonsensical. He does not understand recent advancements in this field. No single authority suffices to describe China or predict its future. Nevertheless, he accurately summarizes China's geopolitical and demographic vulnerabilities. His points merit our attention.
I’m a 90s from HK and I pretty enjoy this video. Here in HK we are experiencing the clash between PRC and the West in our daily life so I fully understand why ppl in the West might have the misunderstanding u mentioned in the video. Rational and balancing view is rare nowadays and I hope you would continue the great work. Maybe u can also talk about some of your personal background to let your audience to know more about you.😊
There's nothing very rational or balanced about listing off a bunch of conflicts another country has been involved in, without context, as one down manship as compared to China who were involved in none.
People in the West are not stupid. They understand China quite well. They are just jealous, anxious and afraid. In a word, they do not want to see an economic giant in the East.
@@WistrelChiantiYou forget the part that most, if not all, of China’s conflicts have been that of sovereignty ie its boarders. On the other hand, the U.S. goes around invading and stroking wars the world over. Wake up!
I love seeing your videos. A very well English speaking chinese youtuber on western platform. I hope many people like you will speak up the truth about China.
Very interesting video. Not only this one. Will also look other ones from your channel. It is really good to learn things about China not only from our media here in Germany.
@@sgtbeercanyt they relying upon the stereotype of the western world and particularly English speaker's don't know squat about geopolitics. This is at best a lame propaganda video
I love your arguments. They make perfect sense and indeed persuasive. Love your approach, style and delivery - so free, empathetic and yet right on point. It put a smile on my face after watching this video. Thank you!
Thanks for the video. I enjoyed watching it and agree with almost everything in it. There are many more things to be said about China, that I don't think Americans are aware of. I lived in Taiwan for 19 years and I became very impressed with how peaceful and cooperative people who live in Chinese culture are. I could never have lived so long without the fact that Chinese people were so helpful and supportive. When I arrived I became an English teacher (what else could I do). After about a year of teaching English, I watched a video about the freedoms and rights people have in America. I thought I need to teach my students about it. So I devised a whole lesson to illustrate democracy and freedom to help the students learn about it. I made up a long lesson providing examples of all the freedoms and rights people have in America. When I was in class giving my lesson, the students did not seem as impressed as I thought they should. One nice young lady told me "We have all those freedoms here." I thought for a minute and was shocked, she was right! All these freedoms that I thought were exclusive to the USA, were not only here too, but even better! I was always much more guarded and careful about what I said and did in the USA. The reason I felt much freer in Taiwan is not because of the government but because of Chinese culture. The Chinese culture in Taiwan provided me with more freedom and opportunity than I ever had in the USA. That is why I suggest that people should not pay very much attention to western media accounts of China.
bro, have you ever talk these to Taiwanese? I'm sure you'll piss off most of them. As a Chinese who live in Taiwan for 4 years, I'm sure that Taiwanese are more friendly than Chinese in average. And for another reason, you are white, and Asian like white. And for “freedom”, they have, we don't have. that's clearly. their government? well, the most democratic government in Asia, more democractic than the US, according to data. If you don't believe, go to Henan or Shandong. I'm just wondering what you think what Chinese culture is. Cause it's very complicated issue, you have to read about history, politics and culture, to understand these three of China is not a easy task. After learning them you'll not Chinese culture isn't essentially "peaceful".
You can't compare free and democratic Taiwan to China. They may have similar cultures, but you can't say and do the same things in Beijing that you can in Taipei.
Greetings to you Siming Lan. You offer ideas I have never encountered, which give much food for thought. You make a compelling case for your point of view. Blessings of health and prosperity to you and yours.
Your video was so refreshing. I loved learning about China from a different perspective, it has truly helped understand China a lot more as an outsider to China. Thank you for putting effort into making video like this.
I just found your channel and I agree with most of what you say and very well made videos! 👏👏👏 I hope you make a video about china's relationship with its neighbors (especially in southeast asia) and the controversies regarding the BRI (they say predatory lending strategies). I'm a filipino living in Italy for several years now and I've always admired the chinese culture and its people. Our people have been friends long before the Spaniards colonized our archipelago and crushed our asian identity. This is why it saddens me that our people seem to have forgotten this ancient bond. It breaks my heart to see the tensions happening in the contested waters in the south china sea (or west philippine sea as it is now called in my country). Innocent filipino fishermen are shown on television being aggressively thrown out of the fishing grounds by the Chinese coast guard while huge chinese fishing vessels harvest vast amounts of fish and even endangered animals. Filipino fishermen just want to fish on waters that have been their fishing grounds for generations. Of course the tensions aren't just about the fish and it's more complex than that but it's just to illustrate the absurdness of the situation. I don't mean to point fingers and start a fight. I'm just asking, why are we doing this? The Phillipine government tried to repair ties with China under Duterte but since not much changed in how they treat us, Marcos returned to the USA's arms and now we have new philippine military bases in the north of Luzon island near Taiwan that are now available to US troops. It doesn't make any sense to me. Instead of fellowship and solidarity between asian people, we keep fighting and bickering among each other and for what? I never trusted the americans. They have always betrayed us everytime it becomes convenient for them. My people have been fooled into thinking that the americans have our best interest at heart. I wouldn't mind a chinese regional power in south east asia if China proved to be a wiser and just, but most filipinos don't feel safe and mistrust the chinese government so they cling to uncle sam's missiles for a sense of false safety. I don't know how things will go but I strongly believe that if only asians stopped bickering amongst each other and resume collaboration and cultural exchange like in ancient times, our region would prosper and even surpass the 'west'.
Hi lloyd5611 Previously and even now there are no real problems between China and the Philippines. It’s only after ‘the pivot on Asia’ policy of Obama and the need for USA to have a new enemy, surrounding China in all fronts and getting bases nearer to China, China have no choice but to claim all South China Sea before US entice Philippines, Vietnam to allow it to set up more and even nearer bases to lock up China. This point was conveniently ignored by all nations under the thumb of US.
The islands in the South China Sea have always been the traditional fishing grounds for Chinese fishermen. Every year, fishermen from Hainan and Guangdong Province of China travel southward along the ocean currents to the islands in the South China Sea to catch fish and collect pearls, etc., and return back to the South China Sea along the ocean currents half a year later, and many of the islands in the South China Sea are paved with the ruins of wells and houses left by the Chinese fishermen. Other countries around the South China Sea could not take advantage of the ocean currents, and before the industrial revolution, they would at best fish on the coast, not in the middle of the South China Sea. The Philippines is the least qualified country to claim the South China Sea. The Philippine tree has been colonized for centuries, and during the colonial period, the territorial waters of the Philippines never included the islands of the South China Sea. Even when the Philippines later became a colony of the United States, its territory did not include the islands in the South China Sea. Without going into history, just the recent ones, did you know that China drew its territorial sea baseline after WWII on a US warship? If the islands in the South China Sea belong to the Philippines, then how could the US allow Chinese soldiers on US warships to claim that the islands belong to China? In 1999, the day after the U.S. bombed the Chinese Embassy in Yugoslavia, the Philippines beached Renai Reef with a raggedy boat, an act that was shameless. The Philippines has repeatedly promised to tow away the broken boat, but it has always gone back on its word. Do you think that China cannot tow away that broken boat? We have put up with you for a long time.
If China were like Western countries, they would have colonized the Philippines hundreds of years ago. Filipinos would have been exterminated and enslaved like North American Indians, Central American Indians, or Africans. The islands in the Philippines would be full of Chinese. .There will be no country called the Philippines. There will also be no island sovereignty claimed by the Philippines.
A friend and I were talking about China this morning. She's thinking of moving to china for her next career shift (she's american but has worked in Sudan, Uganda, Pakistan). She wanted to understand more about the country and culture and I was happy to point her here. As she has worked extensively in Muslim countries and my own students this week brought up the subject of the Uighur Muslims, can you comment on that?
Thanks for this video. In the West, our media only gives us the American view of China. I am so glad to have seen the Chinese view of its place in the world. You have given us much to think over.
Siming, as a young boy, I used to ride my bike 8 kilometers to work in a Chinese garden, supplying a town of 12,000 with food. For me, it was a natural labor. of fung shue and focus, I learned to speak some words and return the next day, before going back to school. I was 11. That was in 1954. I used to think that New Zealand Society was asleep, yes, post-war, people returning were not recognized. I kept on working. in many districts, Gold Mining was undertaken by, Chinese people, my brain ticked on. I met many and have lived with many since. your potent delivery has struck a resonant chord. Keep delivering, Namaste............
Excellent point of argument， As 啊Chinese I always come to an argument with western friends about threat of China raise， apparently you did a great job of interpretation. We need more people like you with great ideas 🎉
I don't think it's accurate to say China has a history of choosing not to dominate when possible. Chinese Dynasties dominated what they could up to their geographic limitations. Peripheral kingdoms were viewed as vassal and/or tributary states. Ask China's neighbors if they prefer their current standing in the world order over the historical norm under the Qin, Han, Tang, and Ming Dynasty.
Do you agree with what she said that only people of Chinese descent can be Chinese? What if people agree with China’s vision and want to join them, can they hope to be integrated ?
We need many more like Siming Lan who can explain clearly and convincingly to the world what China stands for. Thank you for stepping forward to fill in this very important role.
Foreigners cannot be Chinese, but China has citizens in every country on Earth. Han Master race? Siming Lan should explain China's claim to the bases in the South China sea.
@@smokescreen2146she ignores the reality that the people in Taiwan are NOT Han Chinese and do not speak the same dialect much like Uyghurs. Sooner, rather than later, China is going to have to answer the difficult questions behind the origin behind the pandemic, what role the ccp's delay in notifying the who and what, if any connection all of this had with the international military games taking place around the time of the outbreak. This is why the west is divesting its manufacturing and technology from Chinese territories as a result of the actions of the government, the pandemic and outright espionage by both government and corporations loyal to the ccp.
I'm not sure when the quote at 8:00 was written, but it's quite impossible for Taiwan to get "secession" from China when it's already an independent nation.
If you look back at history, there is no clear dividing line between almost all dynasties (although the textbook will give you an exact year), one dynasty conquered another, and it was a continuous process that lasted for dozens or even hundreds of years. For example, when the Qing Dynasty ruled China, the remnants of the Ming Dynasty still existed for decades. Taiwan and mainland China are in a similar situation, a civil war that hasn't ended yet, or more like one dynasty hasn't fully conquered the other. 如果你回看历史，几乎所有的朝代之间都没有明确的分界线（虽然课本上会给你一个确切的年份），一个朝代征服另一个朝代，是持续几十甚至上百年的持续过程。例如清朝统治中国的时候，明朝残余势力还存在了几十年。台湾和中国大陆是类似的情况，属于一场还没结束的内战，或者更像一个朝代还没完全征服另一个朝代。
What makes the West nervous about China's rise isn't its economic power as much as its totalitarian control of political dissent and its lack of respect for intellectual and other property rights. The Chinese government has not only suppressed dissent at home, but has attempted to control what others say about it and even sent out agents to kidnap native Chinese who have emigrated to other countries if they criticize the Chinese government. Western democracy is based on the idea of individual freedom and the right of the individual and private corporations to own their work and speak freely about what they think. If the Chinese government were as tolerant and respectful of these rights as the video you showed supposedly reenacting the visit of a Chinese emissary to the east coast of Africa in the 15th century, I don't think westerners and Chinese emigres would be as concerned about doing business with China. The CCP runs a surveillance state that knows where everyone is and what they are doing at every moment. That's Orwellian Big Brother invasion and denial of all individual rights to privacy. As the digital age gives more and more power to surveillance states, the rights that individuals in the West take for granted will be threatened far beyond the boundaries of China. The Taiwanese have built their own industry and have chosen to do business with the West. If China has its way, that privately owned industry will be put under the ownership and control of the CCP, which will not do business with the West until it has gained technological supremacy and can dictate terms that are entirely favorable to its surveillance state. This is a big deal. It's not just a misunderstanding.
This is completely false. China has been open to trade since the 1970s when they clashed with the soviets. China bought licenses and private companies invested in China in mass. A lot of copies of things are just tech transfer from the west. Specially in heavy industry and military machines. Their 1980s tanks all had western engines cannons, suspension, fire control systems, etc. Its exactly the open trade which enriched China and they took advantage of being a demographic behemoth to be highly competitive and grow. Then the US saw it as a threat after profiting from them for decades. When China grew and their people became wealthy to have better life conditions and consumer habits and their market allowed local companies to compete with western ones it didn't seem funny anymore to the US . You say china doesn't respect intellectual property and steal tech. They do, but as any country they do the other when they can. The whole US industrialization was built on stealing European technology and copying without license. The US banned imports and their industries just copied everything. You know the ballpoint pen?. It was invented and patented in Argentina, in the 1960s s US citizen saw them in Buenos Aires, bought a box and just copied in the US ruining the Argentine company. The US one now is a massive multinational that bought the Argentine one after selling their unlicensed pens around the world. Japan and South Korea also copied s lot of things. The US seems to have this constant selective memory, but in the 1970s they insulted constantly the Japanese for their low quality rip offs of US brands. Toyota and Mitsubishi were called shit boxes and their models were all licensed and stolen models of US and European car brands. China currently is being besieged by the US to slow down their progress and try to block them from accessing new technology. Of course they will do industrial spionage when they need. Nothing rare, the US keeps doing it, the US is the major industrial soy in the world, as per the Intel leaks show how the US intelligence collaborates with US companies to spy industrial secrets and steal propietary technology from Europesn, Japanese, Russian and any country that has something nice on their desks. The US accusations against China is because they don't like China growing and that the Chinese time to time spies on them. They feel offended that others do what they do, the US is an spoiled delusional and entitled entity that believes they have the exclusivity to do whatever they want and tell the rest of the world they cannot. Finally currently the Chinese are the largest publishers of scientific research on international peer reviewed portals and largest patent creater in the world. Simply there is little niches the Chinese are behind, they already catched up to most tech and now they are further advancing. It is unavoidable, they have too much population and now the resources, in s few decades they will the technology superpower ahead of the rest by sheer brute force of demographics. For worse in the west education has fallen and natives don't study STEM, US scientific research depends mostly on immigrants and exchange college studies or contracted foreign specialists. China don't do gender studies, and such useless college studies, they do what matters, science.its s country of engineers, statistics, scientists. Even their politicians are all engineers, not doctors and lawyers discussing what a woman is in the congress... They discuss serious matters like infrastructure, space programs, trade routes, foreign investment in poor countries to elevate their economy so they can buy their stuff.
Nice! Also, if people listen carefully China's whole purpose is always about saving face? Anyone that has ever led in anything, knows in the real world you must pitch battles to win wars. There is no set standard on this in China but at the whim of its current leader. In short, none of us forgot about Mao's cultural revolution and his little red book. Or how 30 million Chinese were starved to death. Or all the land stolen by the state. Or the actual purpose of their social experiment failing and what actually created the mass exodus to Taiwan in the first place. All this video is about China trying to re-brand itself because they are going broke/failing. Their GDP figures are a proven lie as it is not $13 trillion but $8 trillion. Making their real internal/external dept to GDP over -300%. My guess is China MUST make BRICS successful as they roll into a gold currency back system to survive or start over. They have a greater than 90% failure rate. The actual purpose of the video.
Your so called western democracy is full of shits. Look at San Francisco and California now, full of drug addicts, homeless people and horrible crimes on the streets. This kind of freedom and human rights should be kept inside your pocket. No thanks, we don't want any of them.
You just repeat here the common criticism of China by the mainstream western media. But is a bit silly to continue to parrot the virtues of western democracies when you seen what is happening in the US: a widening gap in inequality, a rise in poverty, a toxic social environment, a violent gun culture, a total disrespect for the individual vs. corporate greed, and a rigged electoral system. The US lost its moral high ground many years ago, is a power in decline and is quite anxious about it. The reality is in fact a bit more complex than the simplified one liners about China that you see on BBC and CNN. It is a fact that the one party system has been tremendously effective in accomplishing a transformation from a rural poor China to a modern but still in development country. China is becoming a regional power, and getting more assertive, yes....as expected after the humiliations of the past. But in the very long history of China there is no tradition of aggressive expansionism as one has seen in the few centuries of power of Pax Americana. And certainly I have not seen China faking intelligence to justify a foreign country invasion. Ah, but yes, we don't talk much about that in the West right ?
I’m part of your target audience. I studied History in university and took a class on the People’s Republic. I even visited China in 2017. I am also, as an American, anxious about even the possibility of war in the Pacific. You bring a lot of knowledge, experience, and perspective to the table. Keep up the good work. Xie xie
Thanks for this concise overview of China's mentality. We will never understand it because we don't understand cooperation. We are all about competition, and we must win.
If you believe one side represents all that is good and the other all that is bad, you have been deceived by one of them. The human heart has both. Neither good nor bad belong to any group.
On the last puzzle piece - Taiwan. I do recall chinese nationalists claim that russian Vladivostik / the russian Far East is part of Greater China. And I don't think it will end with Taiwan especially as it has territorial disputes with almost all its neighbours.
The number of peoples claiming that the Russian Far East is a part of China is not significant. I would estimate that less than 0.01% of the population holds such a view (of course, considering China's large population, even 0.01% would account for several hundred thousand people). However, 99.9% of Chinese people believe that Taiwan is a part of China. This is because the relationship between mainland China and Taiwan is considered an unresolved civil war.
Very interesting video, it's nice to see the Chinese perspective, because most of the time we don't get to hear you guys, maybe because you guys use different social media platforms idk. Also I have a question for you, if China isn't all that bad after all, why do they trade with North korea, why they outsource the production of textile there? And about the Foxcon why they install net for people to not suicide? One last thing, why they 'reeducate' the Muslim community or whatever. The west say they are committing extermination of that population.
You are reading uniquely anglo saxon media. It lies. Suggest you start reading, watching media from other non western sources and you'll be amazed . n.b. NOT ONE Islamic state agrees with your views as to the treatment of muslim faith adherents in China ( they live in other provinces as well) ... that should give you a clue
None of your questions will be acknowledged because this is a propaganda video meant to shame the west..... Chinas zero covid policy in which they are locking entire apartment buildings full of people in for a week at a time , who cares? Expolited cheap labor due to 0 care for its work force who are actively suffering , who cares?
@@pearsonfrank if I could speak Chinese or Arabic I definitely would, that's what I've always thought, the best way to get info is to watch the medias of language concerned but yeah unfortunately I haven't learn anything but English and French, so it's cool to see someone that is Chinese that can speak a language I can understand
On your last question, it's because American trained and funded terrorists kept entering China through Xinjiang and killing locals. Extremist ideology claimed many lives, and now we see ZERO terrorism in Xinjiang as well as a rapidly rising population and standards of living there. How else should China deal with this issue? I can't think of a rosy solution. We can't earnestly believe westerners care about Muslims or Chinese, much less Muslims in China. My honest advice is to avoid anything western media says about China like the plague.
- On NOrth Korea - If China stop trading with North Korea, it wouldn't do any good, especially to the North Korean people. The west likes to use sanction, but the truth is sanctions don't work. Asians have a different way of thinking. The western thinking is "us vs them". But the Asian thinking is to be inclusive. - Foxcon is a Taiwanese company who manufacture electronics in maindland China, and they are the largest manufacturer for Apple. The profit margin of of an iPhone is 319 dollars, but Foxcon only makes 8 dollars per iphone while Apple takes all the rest. So Foxconn is sequeezed for proft and so in turn Foxconn squeezes the workers. This is why you see a lot of negative news about the poor treatment of Foxconn workers in China. But if you look at the real Chinese brands such as Huawei and Xiaomi, then you don't hear about unfair worker compensations. This is because Huawei and Xiaomi are Chinese companies and therefore unlike Foxconn they don't have foreign overloreds who take 90% of the profits from them, and so they can distribute the pie more evenly with their workers. By the way, this is all the more reason you should buy Chinese brands such as Huawei and Xiaomi, if you really care about the well being of the people in China. - If you look at the Uyghur population in Xinjian, it did not decline but in fact it has grown 10 times since 1980. In the early 2000s some Uyghurs joined radicalized Islam and they comitted a lot of terrorist attacks in the region. They hurt a lot of innocnent people. the Chinese government worked out those who are likely to become radicalized are the unemployed who don't have skills. So they built "re-education" camps and they made those people attend the camps and learn empoyable skills, so they can find a job and join the mainstream society. So in summary that is China's solution to fight against religious terrorism. I guess from the western perspective, China's policy sounds wrong becuase it forces people to attend schools against their will. But let's remember, during the period, the west's solution to fight religious terorrism was by invading the Middle East and bombed millions of Middle Eastern civilians half way to hell. Maybe there is some cultural difference between the west and China, but to me, China's solution is so much better, because it did not kill any body and it successfully helped the radical pepole to join the society. So I don't know how anyone, especially those in the west, can point a finger at China and critize its policy while the west's corresponding solution killed millions of civilians in the middle east and also created 40 million refugees. By the way of mentioning, in the USA, the average life expectancy of minority groups (such as black people and hispanics) is 45 years old. In China's Xinjiang province, the average life expectancy of Uyghurs is 72 years old. Those figures are very telling about which country is better at protecting the human rights of its ethnic minority group.
As an American something I feel we all feel is too many normal people die and get injured in wars so the elite don’t look weak. I know the average Chinese and average American don’t want to fight each other. As far as Taiwan I really don’t know what to think, on one hand I support people’s right to self determination, but on the other hand I understand how we would react if a state tried to succeed, see American civil war. I don’t want to live under a regime like China because I value my individual freedom and would fight that to the death but we don’t have a right to impose our will on others. We learned well some of us anyway, in Iraq and Afghanistan that you cannot impose a Western style democracy on a people who do not support it. We all need to learn to live together peacefully or we will all die, it’s as simple as that.
What is this western style democracy I keep hearing. It's simple, you have an election and find some way to vote in the leaders. It doesn't have to be western it just needs a dictionary. As for imposing will, I'm fairly certain that if everyone in Afghanistan felt that the americans were imposing their will, USA wouldn't have lasted 5 minutes there. There had to be someone local they were fighting for otherwise it would be a pretty shit ride. As for a state breaking away from USA, what's the problem with that? If everyone there votes for it then fair game. Sure I appreciate those living outside said state might not like it but that's no reason to go to war to stop them. In the UK it's pretty likely Scotland will break off at some point, if they do, I'd be sad to see them go but I wouldn't be in favour of stopping them. Instead I'd look inwardly and ask "OK we screwed up, because they wanted to leave, how we can prevent Wales from wanting to bugger off too?"
Actually, Chinese economy is dependent on American investment. America, not such much. Hence the reason the Biden administration is quickly divesting to closer supply chain locations like Mexico. USA built China up when it allowed it into the wto.
@@frank-ko6de The largest source of foreign direct investment in China is from Chinese circles like Hong Kong, Taiwan or Macau. Heck even Japanese investment is higher then that of the United States in most cases. Also these are often made by business people wanting to get things done. On the other hand, China holds more than $1 trillion of the U.S. national debt and the Chinese people contribute a large amount to the American economy, Silicon Valley an the infrastructure projects of the World. Also, about half of the world's wealth in the world belong to about the top four or five richest people on earth. So NO. America didn't "built up" China. The Chinese middle class did. Heck, America didn't even "built up" America. The name behind the company and the ones getting rich may largely be American and white but everyone else contributed to the pie.
Thank you for these enlightening videos. As an American, I am happy to learn more about your people and country. The more we warm up to each other as human beings, the less we will see each other as “the enemy”. I look forward to watching more of your videos.
Yes let not the peple in the media turn us to enemies. We all can live in peace on this earth. Bring back globalization so we all can entangled with each other, no more war only diplomacy.
How did China come across as aggressive over issues like Taiwan (by threatening to seize it), Hong Kong ("in recent years, Beijing has cracked down on Hong Kong's freedoms, stoking mass protests in the city and stoking international criticism. Beijing imposed a national security law in 2020 that gave it broad new powers to punish critics and silence dissenters, which has fundamentally altered life for Hong Kongers") and the South China Sea ( "encroaching on coastal states' exclusive economic zones, increasing its militaty presence around features, seeking to deny the United States and other countries navigational and other freedoms of the seas, and escalating its militarization of features it occupies"). Also violating the United Nations convention of the law of the sea (UNCLOS), which China signed but refuses to accept the authority of the UN. "China continues to construct military and industrial outposts on artificial islands it has built in disputed waters." Those are the specifics about how China has not just come across as aggressive, but actually has become aggressive in these three areas.
I can't believe people still refer to Fukuyama, the quack just like G0rdon Chang, these are amarikan wannabes. If their predictions is only half true, at least they could be respected, but they have all been wrong ALL the time. Gordon predicted China will collapse like every decades since 80s, U$ is so d00med with these experts.
I not only agree, I also think that you explain your position very clearly and honestly. So that should help many who do not understand China and who do not take the problem to see all the parts, you do it with sincerity and sometimes it even causes you a double feeling, but I think you are correct and that helps us a lot to understand what a wonderful country that is China. I wish everyone would give themselves that research paper and be more honest. No more that sinophobia, the world is vast enough to contain different options and respect others in their idiosyncrasies. Thanks you do a great job. Congratulations! US is not the world Sheriff any more, west must iníciate to understand that the world is changing.
Hi Siming, Interesting to hear your thought & insights, However... The one thing with regard to Taiwan that you haven't addressed is the belief by many that any takeover would look just like it did in Hong Kong. To an outside it certainly looked like the CCP were the 'aggressors' taking such strong arm tactics and breaking the agreement with the UK - so why should we trust the CCP about anything The CCP imposed it's sole will upon a people before they were legally entitled to, why would anyone think they would treat others differently if they gain a strong enough position. Why we anyone think the CCP is any different to USA
Hi Siming, thank you for explaining. A Chinese point of view is important to enlighten the issue as a Caucasian who took another country will find difficulty understanding considering what they have today belongs to others long before. And they maintain world influence with military power after they achieve certain degree of economic success. So the rise of China's economy is unsettling to them. It's understandable for one who grew up in such a country & experiencing world influence & power from birth, will find it difficult to accept others rising. So human that one likes to be the boss of all. Interesting human behavior.
I actually agree with most of what you said. Although one of the exceptions I find to the whole sovereign issues is in regards to Tibet. Tibet was for most part of history an independent state. With only small periods of Chinese rule. Being the bridge between India and China, you can see the influence of both cultures in the people. Where even the language is written in a more of devnagri script closer to Hindi than in Han or traditional chinese script. It has both Confucian and Dharmic philosophy present in the society with the latter being the dominant one. It is very close to the practices in Ladakh (Part of Jammu and Kashmir state in India) Coming to modern history, the line that was drawn between India and Tibet was through a treaty which was mutually agreed upon and hence upon Independence of India it was kept as the international line. But upon the annexation of Tibet by China, the Chinese refused to accept it as a line that defines Internation boundry. Now this became a sore point between India and China including the war of 1962. There used to be a common saying in India called Hindi-Chini-Bhai-Bhai (Indians and Chinese are old brothers) which used to be reiterated by the then Prime Minister of India Jawahar Lal Nehru with an almost blind faith. But after China attacked India claiming the territory it became an issue that plagues to this day with a lot people blaming him for being naive for trusting China blindly. For me it is an interesting issue as where China goes wrong in righting the century of humiliation as the borders drawn were done between two states which had nothing to do with China back then. This is where expansionist approach of China becomes most blatent as - in trying to find old glory, it inflicts much pain on the present and the future. For example, Indian empires at one point extended all the way to Afghanistan and south east asia but if India started claiming such things it would be absurd. So in a world of modern governments such practices ought to be called out.
Many other parts of modern China was historically an independent country, I don't think that's the issue here. You can certainly argue that Corsica had, for the most part, historically been a political entity outside of France, but now it is undoubtedly a French province, and nobody would contest that just because historically it was not part of France until recently. Arguably the Siberian native nations, including various Uralic, Turkic, Mongolic, Tungusic peoples and others had never been under Russian rule in any point in history until the 18th and 19th century. But it makes no sense to say that Siberia isn't part of Russia. The same goes for the United States, which expanded well beyond the initial British colonies on the east coast. It is simply unproductive to claim that somehow territories outside of the original British America aren't legitimate territories of the US. We can't have any serious discussion of modern, established nation-states on that basis. We have to anchor the reality in some historical consensus. Like it or not, Tibet was most certainly under Chinese rule during the Qing period (1644 to 1911), and in fact there was Chinese troops stationed at the Indo-Tibetan border during the entire period. And the internationally recognized territory of modern China (both the Republic of China and the People's Republic of China) inherits that of Qing China, with the exception of Mongolia which became an independent country in 1921, a fact conceded by China in 1946. Even when Tibet had de facto independence from 1912 to 1950, the international community, British India included, continued to respect China's sovereignty over Tibet. And even for the entirely of the Cold War, the West continued to consider Tibet part of China. This was never challenged at any point, until the 21st century, when Tibetan separatism gains global attention and is seen by the West as a leverage against a rising China. So what do you think the Chinese would think, when all of sudden you throw out the claim that Tibet, instead being a Chinese province, is now an "occupied territory", a victim of Chinese colonialism? They would (rightly) believe it is part of western strategy to weaken and divide China. You could imagine how the Americans would react if China ever insinuates that the US has no right to rule Hawaii, California, Texas, or indeed any territory outside of the East Coast, no doubt they would decry a "CCP plot to destroy America". When you shake up the basis of modern nation-states like that, you go to very dangerous places. And to bring up the cultural claim, that Tibet is not China because Tibetan culture is different, does not work. China is not a monolithic culture, there are more than 50 native cultures recognized by the state, many of them quite distinct from each other. Even the majority "Han" ethnic group is arguably an umbrella term for several different ethnicities who are as different from each other as the Swedes from the English, or the Romanians from the French. In fact, Tibetan Buddhism was a very significant part of the Chinese culture during the Qing period, with much of the ruling class under the influence of Tibetan Buddhism, it certainly was not separate from China but an integral part of the Chinese empire.
@@lynnjohnny01 I understand the points you make about how it is difficult to reshape modern nation-states. You give the great examples of Russia and France. However, I think it is difficult for Tibetans to have the feeling of being a respected minority in China if their spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, is not allowed in Tibet. Wouldn't it be fair to let him back into Tibet?
I think the other reason Taiwan is of such importance to the CCP is a sort of perceived domino effect. There would be other areas of China where the majority of the population would prefer to be independant, and any change to Taiwan's status may encourage them.
Wow, you bring up points historical points I've been aware of, but connect the dots in a way that makes sense from China's perspective vs what ive been used to seeing here in America. Ill definitely wqtch more of your videos
I am a Chinese who has received good education in both China and the US, and I want to say, being the most powerful country means practically being able to do anything is such a superficial way of viewing how the world works, it may even seem a little like a projection of how China's leaders think the world (should) work: if I have power, I have everything! US was founded on day one on a set of principles including separation of power, the idea is that power is inherently corrupting and a mechanism (instead of good people, or good morals) needs to be in place to manage it. This is deep in the core of US values. When it comes to Taiwan, isn't it a little ridiculous that China is willing to do whatever it takes, including military operations, to "save face"? If you are a CEO of a company, do you make decisions based on what saves you the most face, or what does the most good for the company? It's a little unfair to compare in this case, because if a CEO does not do a good job, the board votes to replace him/her with a new one; if the CEO of China does a bad job, that is okay because "saving face" is more important. What's more, if Chinese culture makes one proud (including me), and Taiwan shares lots of the same culture, why does it not want to come back? That's a question only China has an answer to, not the US, not the rest of the world. 一个真正自信而强大的人需要殴打比自己弱小的亲兄妹来给自己“长脸”吗？ 美国从英国独立出去后，英国人面对美国人的时候会自卑得抬不起头，或者恼羞成怒吗？ Of course, America is an easy target to blame. Don't get me wrong, I live in the US and criticize it all the time, but "American exceptionalism" is such a boring and empty concept to begin with.
I wish more people in the world had such a balanced and considered viewpoint on things as you do Jamie. Indeed every time I ask online "why not ask the Taiwanese what they want?" I get ridiculed and called a clown but no one ever seems to present an actual answer to the question. I find this behaviour very strange... even... robotic one might say...
4:12 - Korea and Vietnam which are historically and culturally distinct from China would beg to differ. Also as much as one can (validly) ask "What does it mean to be an American?" (you provided a somewhat accurate, but limited answer that downplays the same exclusivity that especially the WASP founding stock of modern America would have over Scotch-Irish, Germans, the Dutch, and later the subsequent groups to migrate to the U.S.), I'll ask in kind: "What does it mean to be a Chinese?" You omit the debate in the early 20th century within China over whether the eventual successor state of the Qing Empire should be a Han ethnostate or a more civic nationalist one, the latter of which was more-or-less the adopted model for the ROC during its Mainland Era. I assume you consider the other constituents of the "Five Races" (i.e. Tibetans, Mongolians, Uyghurs, and Manchus) as "core parts" of the Chinese state. This is the modern product of a long process of cultural assimilation and the idea that a Tibetan, Mongolian, Manchu, and/or a Uyghur would have in times past (or even many to this day) as some sort of default setting (in lack of better phrasing) have assumed the identity of being "Chinese" is at best a naive misunderstanding and at worst obfuscating the historical context of both America and China. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt since you don't outwardly come off as having bad intent, but I do think you and those who share similar sentiments are projecting. China is the last country to be critiquing America or anyone for "hubris." China still claims to this day many facets of Korean culture came from them. There are some shared features of each respective group but again like you there is a severe omission of crucial information and a tendency to lean towards the most sympathetic / advantageous view from the vantage point of Beijing.
I agree w u here, from a Vietnam point of view, we were assimilated in the past and also being invaded multiple times by China. Our country also adapted this “assimilation” approach as well and do it on local tribal groups. Probably not as extreme as China tho.
I really like this channel because it gives a Chinese perspective on the world today. This is very helpful as the mainstream media seldom expresses this perspective. Learning about the century of humilation was very helpful. I am now an English teacher in Sweden and use your videos to give an example of some ways to work on improving at English. Good work. I look forward to your next videos. Please continue the good work.
This was a thoughtful analysis, and helpful to understanding the perspective of China. However, I do have an objection: the comparison of China and the United States in foreign policy is a misleading one because, until recently, China has not had the financial and military ability to intervene as the US has done. We are just beginning to see how a richer, more militarily capable China chooses to conduct foreign policy, so the picture is not yet complete enough to make a fair comparison. However, the serious consideration China gave of military aid to Russia in their war on Ukraine, their man-made island military bases in international waters in the South China Sea, and their increasingly bellicose rhetoric toward other nations are not positive signs in this regard. What is most concerning is that human rights and individual freedoms are not a part of the foreign policy calculus of the CCP, who see these as "Western values". When the US has failed to live up to these values that are listed in their founding documents, the results have been disastrous; we can only imagine how consistently disastrous China's foreign policy will be if they continue to openly reject these values while projecting their might globally.
I would add that the military assertions in the South China Sea have alienated all neighbors sharing historical claims to the region…none as imaginative as the PRC claim to the entire sea, and a great opportunity to peacefully reunite Taiwan with the mainland was drastically postponed due to oppressive measures in Hong Kong. The peoples of Taiwan have become accustomed to a democratic lifestyle and they have immediately stiffened their resolve not to just give rights they only recently won FROM the KMT to the CCP. Time to think like Deng Xiaoping.
Colonists always make excuses and instead accuse others of being belligerent. The problem is that Americans can only understand the language of firearms
Isn’t it weird that the US considers Taiwan part of China but are at the same time pushing them for separation and arming them? Maybe there will be a day when China arms Texas to succeed from the union.
Taiwan has nothing to do with the so-called a Century of Humiliation. Please check on how Taiwan was left to struggle for its own survival; meanwhile, another concession to Japan was paid for its return back to China. Furthermore, please review the history to compare the land area of China the 1800’s vs the 1900’s. You will see that all is but politics. Nonetheless, thank you very much for taking time to produce a quality episode and kind sharing! 🙏
Taiwan also needs to be kept as a buffer against attacks from outsiders that could easily blockade China during times of war, China is already surrounded by multiple bases in Korea, Japan and the Philippines, just like Tibet is needed to protect the water supply of China, Taiwan is needed to protect access to the outside world.
By this way of thinking the UK should invade and claim Ireland even if Ireland might have something to say about that, as we were there once before and we need it to prevent attacks from the USA who are one of our biggest trading partners... and even have military bases in our own country. Come on now...
I do appreciate your honest assessment of contemporary China, but one must separate the Chinese people from the CCP, which is a malignant presence in China, the region and the world. Ask yourself: Seeing what we have seen in Tibet, Hong Kong, the Covid policies and the Uighur concentration camps, would your country like to emulate the CCP system at home? If not, then you must stand against the rise of the CCP as a world power.
Thank you, Siming Lan. China must be strong, stand up for itself and not be destroyed by outside powers. The rest of the world does not want to sink together with the US and the West.
China's behavior in the West Philippine Sea has been anything but benign. Intimidating small-time fishermen, shining laser beams at Philippine patrol ships, removing buoys, blocking supply ships, etc. are but a few examples of China's aggressive behavior. These after assurances from top CCP leaders that these things can be resolved through "friendly consultations". There is a trust deficit between what is being said and what is happening on the ground ( or water ).
the west's anxiety mainly doesn't come with Chinas technological capability. It comes from the chinese cultural acceptance of authoritarian dictatorship. The technological capability is just a factor which increases urgency for these concerns. "The west" fundamentally distrusts the operating principles driving chinese governance. At one point, authoritarian dictatorships need to distort objective truth to stay alive - especially if increasingly consolidated like under Xi Jinping. So, the global stage gets a nationalist culture that will apply the same extraction philosophy than any other major powers historically have if given the chance (e.g. as already happening with mines in Kongo). Only with the caveat of having a habit of distorting truth to support its fragile authoritarian core. We have George Orwell's 1984 as a novel. We're not particularly fond of its real life implementation.
Gimme a break, the West obfuscates objective truths all the time, does Snowden ring a bell? How about the WMDs Iraq supposedly had? Are news shows in the US showing how they still keep the embargo to Cuba despite UN condemnation? The anxiety in the US comes only because of having their hegemony disputed, nothing else.
"Look China just can't afford to appear weak on Taiwan" those are the words that the west's military contractors want to hear. Those words will get them the war that they want. It is strange how we humans would rather fight a war than appear weak. Cause if you appear "weak" someone will take advantage of you. You know like the west did with China's labor pool, a thing without which we aren't even having this conversation.
I agree, and as an American I do subscribe to the ideals of self-determination. But for the sake of playing devil's advocate, the Union did not simply allow South Carolina and any of the states making up the Confederacy secede from it and an entire civil war was fought to bring them back into the fold (and as someone from New York I agree with the Union's decision to bring the Confederacy back by force despite the bloodshed during the civil war.)
@@michaelheschong4855haha well. There was a time where they would have said they would retake the mainland and end the communist rebellion. But that generation is dying off.
@@dingxiong8604 I agree they should leave. But that’s just a detention center and not a full takeover and imposition of a repressive political system on an entire population that should have the right to chose their own destiny.
You are quite persuasive and a great presenter and you lay out quite well China's claim on Taiwan. It would be interesting to hear how China can reconcile, or even resolve, the differential in East/West thinking on Taiwan's future.
The idea that China does not have a history of aggression is absurd. A major part of the territory currently controlled by China was conquered by the Qing dynasty, regained independence after that dynasty fell, and then was reconquered by the communist government. More generally, China's history has been a cycle of building empires by military conquest, having the empires break apart, and having subsequent dynasties build new empires by military conquest. I don't have specific reasons to think the CCP is likely to turn militarily aggressive beyond wanting conquer Taiwan. But I don't interpret Chinese history as suggesting that authoritarian Chinese rulers can be trusted not to abuse military power.
Err, actually during the Yuan dynasty in the 13th century China was even larger than the Qing dynasty. Qing dynasty's rulership of China was was superceded by the Republic of China in 1911, through a revolution (emphasis, a revolution). This means a change of government in China and the ROC government inherited all terrirotries of China. It was more like the French or the Russian revolution which transitioned the country from monarchy to republic. During the transition, what was China's was still China's. After world war 2, the government of ROC and the CPC fought a civil war where the ROC government lost and fled to the province of Taiwan, and established an exile government. And the CPC beame the offical government in China, who is also the sole inheritor of all Chinese terroritories. So the claim that "most of China" regained independence is false. Also, China's history is not a cycle of empire building by military conquests. The Chinese history was counted in dynasties. Every dynasty was founded by a family who ascended to the imperial throne, they stay on the throne for a few hundred years, the line became weak and other people ursurp the throne and establish a new dynasty. The similar history repeated in every Chinese dynasty. In other words, in Chinese history, every time one dynasty transition to the next dynasty, it was a change of government in China by revolution. It was not "military conquest" of new lands. Historically China has fought border skirmishes, but it has never crossed an ocean to wipe out and enslave the entire civilization. So no, China does not have a history of aggression.
@@walking_luggage8105 If you want to go back farther, a major part of the territory currently controlled by China was conquered by the Yuan dynasty, regained independence after that dynasty fell, maintained its independence through the Ming dynasty, was conquered by the Qing dynasty, regained its independence after that dynasty fell, and was reconquered by the Chinese Communist Party. The point is that the Chinese claim to the territory is based squarely on past acts of aggression and is maintained by the Chinese military acting in the role of a foreign occupying force. (Note that I wrote, "a major part," not "most.") That completely destroys the credibility of claims that China's history should inspire trust that China will not engage in military aggression. Some transitions between dynasties were much smoother than others. There were times when one dynasty took over the territory controlled by the previous dynasty relatively quickly. But there were also times when China was divided for extended periods until someone used military force to reunite it.
@@nabbar Your claim is revisionist history, based on a superficial undrestanding of the Chinese history and its culture. The lands that China has today are acquired via a history where China was conquered by foreign conquerors (who incorporated their own lands into their new dynaty in China), and then China retain the lands during transition to the next dynasty/government because the very foreign conquerors who conquered China assmilated themselves into China and became Chinese themselves. It was not done by Chinese aggressive expansion. During the Sung dynasty, the Gin people (the ancestors of Manchus) invaded and annexed the northern part of China, and drove the Sung dynasty south which was called the southern Sung dynasty. Later on, the Mongols came and wipe out both the Gin kingdom and the Southern Sung dynasty, and they established the Yuan dynasty. Since the founder of the Yuan dynasty were Mongols themselves, so the Mongolians incorporated the whole of Mongolia was incorported into the Yuan dynasty. During the Yuan dynasty, the Mongolians assimilated into the Chinese culture to a certain degree. Over time, the Mongolians became Chinese themselves. This is why the Yuan dynasty is counted as a part of the Chinese history. However, when the Mongols conquered the lands not controlled by the Sung dynasty, the Mongols weren't considered Chinese. So you cannot say the acts of the Mongols is "Chinese aggression". Your claim is almost like saying Ireland has history of aggression against the rest of the world because the Great Britain invaded and annxed America, Africa and Asia in the 17th to the 20th century. The same goes for the Qing dynasty. The Qing dynasty was founded by the Manchus. The Manchus invaded and conquered China's Ming dynasty, and they founded the Qing dynasty. The Manchus incorporated their own ancestral homeland Manchuria into China. The conquering of lands outside of Ming China was done by the Manchus, who weren't considered Chinese at the time (emphasis, at the time). For example, the Manchus went and conquered Mongolia becuase remember the Mongols and the Gin people (the ancestors of the Manchus) had bad blood between them. So once again, you cannot argue the acts of the Manchus in the 16th century is Chinese aggression. However, after the Manchus conquered China, they adapted the Chinese culture and like the Mongolians, they gradually became Chinese themselves. This is why in the more modern days of China (in the past two hundred years), both Manchus and Mongolians are part of China. This is also why, after the Chinese Nationalist Party overthrew the Qing government in the 1911 revolution and established the Repubic of China, the Republic of China (ROC) legally inherited all Chinese lands formerly belonged to the Qing dynasty. The terroritires that you spoke of never "regained" independence becuase like I said most of them have assimilated into the wider China. In 1949, the Communist Party of China fought a civil war against the ROC and the Chinese Nationalists. The ROC lost the civil war and fled to Taiwan, and it established an exile government on the Taiwan province. The Communist party of China then established the People's Republic of China and it legally inherited all of China from the ROC. During this transition, the "terrorities" that you spoke of never "regained" indepdence. Also, while it is true that China was divided in certain periods, during the dynasty transitions, but those were considered civil wars. The "division" that you spoke of usually follows the decline of the central government, resulting in the rise of multile warlords in China fighting over the Chinese imperial throne. (for example, the three kingdom era). Those are considered civil wars, not "aggressive expansion". So no, the claim that China has a history of aggression is unfounded. The sort of claim you are making is historical revisionist, based on a very superficial understanding of China's history and culture. No respectable mainstream historian would agree with your claim. The fact is China got larger over time because the foreign conquerors who conquered China all ended up becoming Chinese themselves, and so the lands controlled by those foreign coqueors, which they incorported into China at the founding of their new dynasty, all became parts of China because those foreign conqueors became Chinese themselves over time. It is also amusing to speculate, perhaps the reason the west decided not to fully conquer and colonize China during the century of humiliation, was becuase they saw the Manchus and the Mongols who fully conquered China, ended up becoming Chinese themslves.
@@walking_luggage8105 The bottom line is that China holds large amounts of territory that it obtained through military aggression and controls in the manner of a foreign occupying power using force and threats of force to suppress desires for independence. Any nation that operates in such a manner on a long-term basis destroys any rational basis for claiming that other nations should not be concerned about ways it might abuse strong military power in the future.
I found this perspective to be really interesting. The one thing I'd note though is that the video focuses on China's government. I live in the Philippines, which is being greatly affected by the Chinese people themselves. Our fish are being aggressively collected by Chinese fishermen. Our indigenous species like the Pangolin and Philippine Porcupine are being aggressively poached for Chinese traditional medicine. There are literally dozens of species being hunted and poached aggressively, and the reason is almost always Chinese need for traditional medicines and/or appetite for seafood. I have long admired China, but seeing how Chinese people are pillaging the resources of neighboring countries has really opened my eyes.
Cannot believe your excellent video has only been viewed by 1.8 thousand people! It is so refreshing to gain an ‘inside’ view of what we (?) of the Western world tend to have presented as the ‘threat’ of China. I think one of the fundamental mistakes we make regarding the US is in seeing it as a benign Western power. As an old man (72) I grew up in an Australia which was a kind of ‘leftover’ from the British Empire. As a child I regarded all the countries coloured red in atlases as amazing, as they were all parts of the Empire (now the Commonwealth). Great Britain obviously built the Empire by conquest (including parts of China). The ‘empire’ of the US is different & less recognised - their empire has largely been financial: their ‘conquests’ have built around the overwhelming strength of the dollar, their domination of the IMF and the World Bank, as well a few strategically based wars. I served in the Royal Australian Navy in the Vietnam War (where China was directly involved), and it took perhaps another twenty years before I grasped how cynical the American involvement was in supporting a hugely corrupt South Vietnamese government. Often though the US has not needed to make war: the oldest (?) example is probably Cuba - the ability to strangle a country by isolating it totally financially. A more current example is perhaps Venezuela. As to Taiwan, which I have visited, I can see the validity of the points you make regarding China’s attitude - especially the supposed global acceptance of the ‘One China Policy’. I think that China has caused itself great problems in terms of successfully ever re-integrating Taiwan. The first one would be seen as their actions in regaining Hong Kong. The current situation there shows that regardless of the promises made to the then British government, Hong Kong has steadily had its rights flouted & any criticisms more & more severely dealt with. I am sure that many nations including Taiwan have viewed China’s action with alarm. The second point about Taiwan is that it is a stable, well-governed, prosperous community/economy - being (perhaps militarily) herded back ‘into the fold’ of the CCP cannot seem anything like attractive. There is also the point that Taiwan is arguably the largest producer of cutting edge micro-technology/micro-chips. China, like Russia, has managed thus far only to make clumsier versions of these technologies, mostly pirated. It is no secret that China would dearly love to possess this technology (& doubtless Russia would support this). It is just as certain that the US & many Western powers would fiercely oppose this - regardless of paying lip-service to the One China policy. The more recent Chinese incursions into the South China Sea have only hardened both Asian & Western resistance. The South China Sea is the most heavily trafficked waterway on Earth & the governments of the nations directly affected (Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, the Philippines) cannot allow their territorial rights to be simply usurped, any more than international trading nations can allow their ships to accept China’s ‘takeover’ of the sea, despite their claims being denied at the World Court. As a sidelight, when my ship, the guided missile destroyer HMAS Perth left the Vietnam War in 1970 we traversed the South China Sea en-route back to Australia. At the time the communist government of Indonesia decided to close the Sunda Strait. We were ordered to force a passage through the Strait. The first HMAS Perth was sunk in the Sunda Strait by the Japanese in World War II & we were told to pause during our passage to drop a wreath commemorating the first Perth. At the same time we were closed up at action stations & our orders were to force our passage & defend ourselves if we were attacked by the Indonesians. Thankfully, the swarm of Indonesian naval vessels stood to & made attempt to stop our ship. Since then, the Strait is recognised as an international waterway. I think the same thing will apply to the South China Sea - not even considering the issue of the various fishing rights of the SE Asian countries. Whatever, I applaud your videos & find they give a refreshing different outlook on China not often to be encountered in the West.
It was only 7 years ago or so when I heard the opinion expressed by people not sympathetic to China that Taiwan is going to "fall back" to China "like a ripe fruit" i.e. that China isn't going to invade Taiwan simply because Taiwan is going to be naturally reunited with China sooner or later. There was a lot of talk about South Chinese Sea but not about Taiwan even though it was already very competitive in semiconductors sector. I think Taiwan began to be discussed a lot when American people got that recent anxiety about China becoming more technologically advanced than US - and people in US remember very well how American automotive industry lost to Japan. I suspect this anxiety sharply increased when TikTok became very popular among young Americans and also when American business circles realized China is dominant in a lot of "green energy" technologies like solar panels etc. - the technologies which are discussed a lot and America is now quite used to feeling like being "the most advanced" country, the leader in the progress of humanity. The threat Americans feel in China is about public image, prestige, "soft power".
Philippines did echo such claims. It took China to court over the sovereignty of one of the south china sea coral reefs, and China lost but doesn't admit to it.
@@xxz397 china refused to go, it’s not like they didn’t know about it. Philippines and China are both signatories to the un convention on the law of the sea, which stipulates that signatory countries settle disputes via arbitration. China was well informed of the Philippines submitting a claim to the tribunal, and refused to go because they knew they had no case. Even though China refused to attend, the judgement of the tribunal is still legally valid in international law.
Hello friends, Zheng He sailed in Ming dynasty, not Yuan. It was a mistake, so highlighting here :)
Yes, I was about to say that
While we are on the Yuan dynasty, I would like to add something.
In 1292, Yuan Dynasty sent an expeditionary force to Java (now Indonesia) to subjugate Singhasari Kingdom. This kingdom refused to pay tribute to Yuan and maimed one of the emissaries.
As you have said, the Chinese, or should I say Mongols (?), didn't want to lose face. The humiliation should be punished accordingly.
@@onisuryaman408 Yet, Zheng He came to Java on friendship, not to punish anyone!!!!
I do like your videos, they are very thought provoking. Just one comment on the Jen Psaki quote. She was speaking in the context of President Biden’s threat toward ISIS-K terrorists who killed 170 Afghan civilians and 13 U.S. service members in a suicide bombing attack in Kabul.
From what I understand, China punished Uyghur terrorists very harshly and they were executed. Biden has to speak that bluntly, because otherwise he will be seen as weak. I don't like it either, but it's a cultural difference. A government can choose not to discuss problems publicly, but act brutally behind closed door. Many countries have abolished the death penalty. The US and China have not.
@@sabinereynaudsf Yes, exactly! There are cultural differences! Therefore it's important to understand each other and not to be so judgemental as if one is superior to the other(s)!! Peace!!!
I was born in Mexico, my dad is Mexican and my mom was chinese. She was born in Taiwan and until her last day she maintained that Taiwan was part of China.
There is a bit of generational divide in Taiwan on that subject. Majority of people born after the 1980's identifies their nationality as Taiwan, people born before that have a more mixed national alignment. My father came with KMT from China, til the day he died, he still think that Taiwan should eventually re-join China. I grew up towards the end of the martial law era, and the last Chiang President died during my junior high school. I was also very much brought up to think Taiwan should eventually reunify with China, but on the condition that we unify them, not the other way around..
Obviously that kind of thinking becomes ridiculous later on, but China still hasn't given up attempt or hope to re-claim Taiwan, while at this moment, majority of Taiwanese no longer do and wants Taiwan to remain independent while not inviting an invasion, that's where majority of Taiwanese wants to maintain the status quo, and essentially kick the bucket down the road and let the future generation decide the fate of Taiwan.
Please continue to make more videos, they are super informative and bring in so much perspective into complex issues. Great work!
"The U.S. side declared: The United States acknowledges that all Chinese on either side of the Taiwan Strait maintain there is but one China and that Taiwan is a part of China. *The United States Government does not challenge that position.* "
Until now, apparently. That's why the USA has been sending official delegations to Taipei, selling arms to Taiwan, conducting naval exercises off China's coast, adding new military bases in the Philippines, and creating military pacts against China (Quad and AUKUS). The USA has demonstrated its duplicity, much to the dismay of Beijing.
At last, someone articulating the Chinese perspective in a way that an English-speaking person can understand. All power to you, I hope you save us from WW3 : )
It all boils down to Chinese pride doesn't it.
Currently the threat of WWIII comes from China'' s aggression in the Philippines.
👍👍👍
@@douglasnakamura6753 US exeptionalism is also about pride, it is spreading chaos and destruction around the world to preserve it.
There is an important, military, aspect of the Taiwan Question which you did not address. I've read that General Douglas MacArthur once explained that, if the U.S. lost control of Taiwan to the Chinese, then the U.S. military control over the Pacific Ocean becomes untenable and they would have to create a new line of control either around Hawaii, or even along the Californian coastline. The U.S. military still emphasizes this point by openly discussing how Taiwan island fits into their "first island chain", which they want to use to keep China out of the Pacific Ocean (as if they own the world's largest ocean).
Agree and US called taiwan "Unsinkable Aircraft Carrier" in one of its report. To be honest, I pity the PEOPLE in Taiwan, they would be the first to suffer if military unification happens.
I just want to say to you and to the algorithm that I wish there were more thoughtful videos like this, from people who wish to bridge the divide by providing insightful perspectives that help rehumanize those we don't fully understand. Please keep up the great work! It's much needed...
Very good video. As someone from South America, we get fed a lot of this "threat of China's rise" discourse from the pro-American media. A lot of people end up buying into it, sadly. It's great that channels like yours promote alternative views to a mostly Western audience. You gained a follower!
A lot of these so called lies about China are true. She omits to mention so many facts, she is almost a PR person for the CCP. Be very careful about what she says. She also compares Black Lives Matter to the possible invasion of Taiwan
Just look at how USA freaks out about Cuba
El comunismo no ha hecho más que arruinar nuestro continente
It’s ok the game is long over already, the US already lost, at this point it’s just tantamount to them ‘going down kicking and screaming holding a temper tantrum because they aren’t getting their way’
Smart people like me are already moving our investments towards more Chinese oriented infrastructure (such as new Chinese-Brazilian companies)
Smart people likewise have long recognized the transfer of wealth to china
I'm a 67-year-old American. In my lifetime the US has invaded other countries at least 55 times.
War, i.e. invasion, is almost always a bad idea. I have seen it from the bloody front.
The Devil embodied.
What does that have to do with this conflict?
@@theoracle9873 Perhaps, you need to work on the devils you don't know?...😶😶😶😶
@@frank-ko6de What could American geopolitics have to do with a geopolitical conflict? 🤔
Thank you for your videos. I discovered your channel a week ago and since watched a dozen of your videos. Your analyses are balanced and intelligent! Great job you do! I learn a lot with you.
hello, i'm 3rd generation chinese heritage living overseas and i totally agree with your general breakdown between china and the west. keep up the good work.
aw thank you :)
Ah..so u might be another son of the Opium wars waged against the good harmless Chinese people 150 years ago.
And I totally disagree.
You’d be wumao shilling for the Chinese communist party.
@@BrianBaileyedtech stop watching CNN.
I sort of already knew China's motivation but you explained it so well. I kind of wish though that more people have a certain level of common sense and intuition especially politicians. Got yourself a new subscriber here👍
Thank you Siming. It is work like this that will help people understand and be understood, to give cooperation and peace a chance. Keep it up!❤
Excellent, and delightfully presented! I'm a South African who has been living in China for 6 years. It has taken time to learn about the culture and people but overtime I have grown to love and appreciate what an amazing nation it is. I hope your content can reach more people in the West.
Congratulations. i enjoy your videos, analysis of China and the "western" viewpoint. I am English, as a child in Liverpool I read a pamphlet (1957) as to the Slave trade , then read up about the Opium wars and realised the reality of how my nation had progressed exploiting both its own peoples and those of the world. I became interested in China in 1971. Amazed at it's regrowth and the achievements of the people, the leadership.
Yes the growth of the censored citizens who dont have legal access to the rest of the worlds search engines.... why do you think that might be? Literally equates to book burning.
Yes, slave labour will do that. Don't forget to study how millions upon millions died from hunger for China's development under the great leader Mao.
@S Myzeqari Where are you from, friend? Want to bet which population is happier and more educated? China's or yours?
@@dunzhen Likely the population that can freely critique their nation in a youtube video without potentially being prosecuted.... Or perhaps even being able to hold up a blank sheet of paper in the street....
@@sgtbeercanyt critique their government then what? get shot and trampled? and then what changes? nothing, too corrupt. dont have the illusion your plutocracy/oligarchy is superior, that's how our media makes you complacent and deflects accountability
thanks for making these videos. I like the approach you try to find the truth from history and culture perspective. But also want to point out that it's not logic to predict how China will behave based on what it had behaved in the past. There are simply too many geographic and political factors at different times for a country/regime to interact with other countries in distinctive ways. If we look at the full history of how China geographically expanded from a limited central region to current mainland China from 3000 years ago, our ancestors conquered/assimilated/eliminated many other ethnic groups.
If you compare what happened in Western history with what happened in China, you may question your statement "it's not logic to predict how China will behave based on what it had behaved in the past". If it is still China, it is predictable.
From your perspective, How do you explain the colonial practices of Western powers, the African slave trade and the genocide of indigenous peoples
If you look at British and American history, you’d rather kick yourself for your comments……😂……
Great video. I agree it's a polarizing topic. It's also a complex and deep topic. It's hard to cover all of it's subtleties in a short video. I think you did great at bringing some perspectives to the surface.
keep a few things in mind when considering the ideas of this video
The first is that she makes no mention whatsoever of how the Taiwanese feel about their relationship with America
I have stayed, add that China has, in fact, benefited more than any other society on earth from the international trade, facilitated through the postwar consensus led by America .
She also does not mention the feelings of other nationalities in China’s neighborhood, particularly the Vietnamese, the South Koreans, or the Japanese to mention a few. How enthusiastic are they about the prospect of a unipolar world where China is the regional power in their neighborhood?
Spot on. I hope we see comment on this from her.
The biggest issue with people declaring how "Taiwanese feel" is that the west generally doesn't care about how they feel. They don't try to understand the nuanced politics of the DPP, KMT or their platforms. They see Taiwanese position as extremely bifurcative: "either you want reunification or independence." and leave no room for middle. Majority of the people looking in .. tend to marginalize all of Taiwan into one position .. the DPP. As for your mention of SK and Japan .. lets be brutally honest here .. they are deeply rooted with the US and their foreign policy is reliant on cooperating with the US. They are also the vanguard in facilitating most of the US anti-sino posture. Being ideological enemies of China, it is obvious they dont want China to be in any position of power.
Without chips, Taiwan is fodder to the Americans. Just another chip on the chessboard like Ukraine.
China does not seek a Unipolar World. Your assumption is wrong from this stand point.
I agree with you 100 percent. You're doing good job educating the west about China.
Not really. She is quite biased.
Lmao. Not really.
@@TJCMN Another western-based Chinese troll?
Any argument for your point? @@vinivini8969
@@vinivini8969another anti china troll?
I love your ability to see both China and the west’s view of each other, and the reasons for each . Well done 👍
I think the most logical comparison between China and USA is : China is more focus on trade while the USA is more on military which nobody could argue that's a false acessment . As trade nation there's absolutely no reason to keep your customers poor or even invade but on the other hand the USA military hegemony is a diffrent story. its serve their intrest to keep their neighbour poor and corrupt that they wont pose a threat in anyway so they can move their military focus on other continent like Asia / Europe
If that is the case,
why is China spending so much on its military?
why China threatens Taiwan with an invasion?
why China threats its neighbirs with war, unless they complay with its demands?
Absolutely so. When you want to trade and invest, you want your partners to grow. When you want to exploit and dominate ove others, you want your 'targets' to be poor and weak. That's a huge difference in mindset!
@@Time4Peace So, why China is investing so much money in the army and threat other countries to bend its will if they just want to trade?
Why China's partners remained poor and debt trapped?
Your answer failed to provide any reasonable explanation remaining just a baseless statement anchored in the dreamworld rather then reality
If that were true then why did the US make the investments it did in China? China could not have made the rise it did without foreign investment. This is not a good analogy.
@@trogdor8942 It's US corporations that invested in China. Not the US government who has always been busy waging wars around the world.
Aside from the Yuan/Ming error, it is worth pointing out that the way Zheng He sailed for glory rather than gold was his downfall. Europeans made money from their voyages, which meant they were sustainable. Zheng He did not, so the court Eunochs burnt all his ships. So it is not really an indication for China in the future.
This not logical. One could have made profit of these new contacts later.
@@karstenburger9031 Europeans not only want money and also all the land with no original people.
@@rexluk yes, true. But this is not limited to Europeans. Think of Tibet. Did they want to be conquered? But it was a very large country, in self chosen political isolation, very poorly defended, and in a strategic place, with large supply of natural resources. Clearly tempting to take it by force with no effort.
@@karstenburger9031 - yes but do you know how many original peoples in north South America to be killed from 1500？
You are too arrogant and shortsighted. China culture looks at long term relationship in business. While the western error pure capitalism short fall looks at business like the stock market, take profit and run who cares the consequences. For example the Ukraine/ Russian war, resulted in energy and food inflation. A short term 4 years cycle of winning a political election. Short term thinking generally always.
Hey siming, really great work, you are like a professional geo politicians, i am surprised that you dont have more subscribers, i suppose you may be new in TH-cam, whatever keep the good work and try to post this kinds of video every week, you will surely get popular.
Thank you so much Siming! It is rare to find someone who can explain the history and facts of China in such clear English.
I'm proud of you for maintaining objectivity and letting the world hear China's true voice.
2:29 - it is Ming, not Yuan.
Also, this idea that "China was #1" and "did not invade others" is very problematic. China was indeed powerful during its Four Golden Ages and powerful even during the weaker dynasties. I would just be happy by stating something like when China was powerful, it did not seek the same type of biological/race-based conquest and colonialism like European powers. Determining who is #1, #2, and #3 before modern economics is quite hard.
It's just a Chinese propaganda ministry worker doing her job bro, cut her some slack and act like we believe it
thanks for the comment 😊
@@SimingLan any time. Please don't think that any of my other messages was directed at you personally, i have nothing bad to say about you. I prey that things go well for you and your people
@@smyzeqari4897 You called her "a Chinese propaganda ministry worker..." How is that not a personal attack? You literally tried to negate everything she said in the video by claiming it's just propaganda...
@@johnyossarian9059 anyone Chinese using TH-cam via VPN (bypassing the Great Firewall) is either a dissident against CCP or a propagandist. There is no middle ground.
Totally support your views and clear explanations. Thanks you and keep on doing more of it.
Hi thanks for posting on different perspectives. I agree that China is misunderstood due to western media claims. Just one small thing I noticed, Zheng He was from the Ming Dynasty. Tink I heard Yuan dynasty earlier in the video
Absolutely Very Detailed & Thoroughly Gone Thru. The Facts & Truth Of Past & History...Well Done Well Spoken.
👏👏👏👏👏
Chinezoaică frumoasă și deșteaptă! Am văzut câteva vloguri ale tale și am fost impresionat de claritatea și corectitudinea argumentelor tale!
Iubesc China! Iubesc oameni ca tine!
Speaking for myself, I am unconcerned about China's rise or America's decline.
I'm much more worried about the possibility that China will become a failed state. Which would be catastrophic.
Peter Zeihan's arguments are difficult for me to refute.
What has China created to sustain its rise, besides its population?....🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂
Peter Zeihan ignores factors that don't fit his narrative.
@@pedrob3953 he certainly does not have a monopoly on sagacity.
He does make mistakes. For example, I have heard him say things about AI which are nonsensical. He does not understand recent advancements in this field.
No single authority suffices to describe China or predict its future.
Nevertheless, he accurately summarizes China's geopolitical and demographic vulnerabilities. His points merit our attention.
Time will tell how accurate Peter is. Let us see.
Peter is a moron. Just look at all his wrong takes on Ukraine.
I’m a 90s from HK and I pretty enjoy this video. Here in HK we are experiencing the clash between PRC and the West in our daily life so I fully understand why ppl in the West might have the misunderstanding u mentioned in the video. Rational and balancing view is rare nowadays and I hope you would continue the great work. Maybe u can also talk about some of your personal background to let your audience to know more about you.😊
There's nothing very rational or balanced about listing off a bunch of conflicts another country has been involved in, without context, as one down manship as compared to China who were involved in none.
People in the West are not stupid. They understand China quite well. They are just jealous, anxious and afraid. In a word, they do not want to see an economic giant in the East.
@@WistrelChiantiYou forget the part that most, if not all, of China’s conflicts have been that of sovereignty ie its boarders. On the other hand, the U.S. goes around invading and stroking wars the world over. Wake up!
This was so good. Please make more. I'm subscribing.
I love seeing your videos. A very well English speaking chinese youtuber on western platform. I hope many people like you will speak up the truth about China.
Very interesting video. Not only this one. Will also look other ones from your channel. It is really good to learn things about China not only from our media here in Germany.
Omg I appreciate you so much for this video!!
Entire video contradicts chinas current 5 year plan but hey this lady knows better.
@@sgtbeercanyt they relying upon the stereotype of the western world and particularly English speaker's don't know squat about geopolitics. This is at best a lame propaganda video
@@sgtbeercanyt You must be American ex-military. Go figure. Looking for another war this week?
@@sgtbeercanyt contradicts? And your source is: Trust me bro?😂
I love your arguments. They make perfect sense and indeed persuasive.
Love your approach, style and delivery - so free, empathetic and yet right on point.
It put a smile on my face after watching this video. Thank you!
Your videos are very thoughtful, well written and presented and you deserve a wider audience. You speak with a genuineness many others don't.
In psychology it is called 'projection': you perceive in others what you have in yourself. You expect actions of others which you would do yourself.
Thanks for the video. I enjoyed watching it and agree with almost everything in it. There are many more things to be said about China, that I don't think Americans are aware of. I lived in Taiwan for 19 years and I became very impressed with how peaceful and cooperative people who live in Chinese culture are. I could never have lived so long without the fact that Chinese people were so helpful and supportive. When I arrived I became an English teacher (what else could I do). After about a year of teaching English, I watched a video about the freedoms and rights people have in America. I thought I need to teach my students about it. So I devised a whole lesson to illustrate democracy and freedom to help the students learn about it. I made up a long lesson providing examples of all the freedoms and rights people have in America. When I was in class giving my lesson, the students did not seem as impressed as I thought they should. One nice young lady told me "We have all those freedoms here." I thought for a minute and was shocked, she was right! All these freedoms that I thought were exclusive to the USA, were not only here too, but even better! I was always much more guarded and careful about what I said and did in the USA. The reason I felt much freer in Taiwan is not because of the government but because of Chinese culture. The Chinese culture in Taiwan provided me with more freedom and opportunity than I ever had in the USA. That is why I suggest that people should not pay very much attention to western media accounts of China.
Thank you James for sharing :) yes, we always learn the best about the world through new experiences and conversations. appreciate the story😊
你是个正直的男人！
bro, have you ever talk these to Taiwanese? I'm sure you'll piss off most of them.
As a Chinese who live in Taiwan for 4 years, I'm sure that Taiwanese are more friendly than Chinese in average. And for another reason, you are white, and Asian like white.
And for “freedom”, they have, we don't have. that's clearly. their government? well, the most democratic government in Asia, more democractic than the US, according to data. If you don't believe, go to Henan or Shandong.
I'm just wondering what you think what Chinese culture is. Cause it's very complicated issue, you have to read about history, politics and culture, to understand these three of China is not a easy task. After learning them you'll not Chinese culture isn't essentially "peaceful".
You can't compare free and democratic Taiwan to China. They may have similar cultures, but you can't say and do the same things in Beijing that you can in Taipei.
Taiwan is not China. I've met plenty of Taiwanese who would punch in the face anyone who, knowing they were from Taiwan, still called them Chinese.
Greetings to you Siming Lan. You offer ideas I have never encountered, which give much food for thought. You make a compelling case for your point of view. Blessings of health and prosperity to you and yours.
Your video was so refreshing. I loved learning about China from a different perspective, it has truly helped understand China a lot more as an outsider to China. Thank you for putting effort into making video like this.
I just found your channel and I agree with most of what you say and very well made videos! 👏👏👏
I hope you make a video about china's relationship with its neighbors (especially in southeast asia) and the controversies regarding the BRI (they say predatory lending strategies).
I'm a filipino living in Italy for several years now and I've always admired the chinese culture and its people.
Our people have been friends long before the Spaniards colonized our archipelago and crushed our asian identity.
This is why it saddens me that our people seem to have forgotten this ancient bond.
It breaks my heart to see the tensions happening in the contested waters in the south china sea (or west philippine sea as it is now called in my country). Innocent filipino fishermen are shown on television being aggressively thrown out of the fishing grounds by the Chinese coast guard while huge chinese fishing vessels harvest vast amounts of fish and even endangered animals.
Filipino fishermen just want to fish on waters that have been their fishing grounds for generations.
Of course the tensions aren't just about the fish and it's more complex than that but it's just to illustrate the absurdness of the situation.
I don't mean to point fingers and start a fight. I'm just asking, why are we doing this? The Phillipine government tried to repair ties with China under Duterte but since not much changed in how they treat us, Marcos returned to the USA's arms and now we have new philippine military bases in the north of Luzon island near Taiwan that are now available to US troops. It doesn't make any sense to me. Instead of fellowship and solidarity between asian people, we keep fighting and bickering among each other and for what?
I never trusted the americans. They have always betrayed us everytime it becomes convenient for them. My people have been fooled into thinking that the americans have our best interest at heart.
I wouldn't mind a chinese regional power in south east asia if China proved to be a wiser and just, but most filipinos don't feel safe and mistrust the chinese government so they cling to uncle sam's missiles for a sense of false safety.
I don't know how things will go but I strongly believe that if only asians stopped bickering amongst each other and resume collaboration and cultural exchange like in ancient times, our region would prosper and even surpass the 'west'.
Hi lloyd5611
Previously and even now there are no real problems between China and the Philippines.
It’s only after ‘the pivot on Asia’ policy of Obama and the need for USA to have a new enemy, surrounding China in all fronts and getting bases nearer to China, China have no choice but to claim all South China Sea before US entice Philippines, Vietnam to allow it to set up more and even nearer bases to lock up China.
This point was conveniently ignored by all nations under the thumb of US.
The islands in the South China Sea have always been the traditional fishing grounds for Chinese fishermen. Every year, fishermen from Hainan and Guangdong Province of China travel southward along the ocean currents to the islands in the South China Sea to catch fish and collect pearls, etc., and return back to the South China Sea along the ocean currents half a year later, and many of the islands in the South China Sea are paved with the ruins of wells and houses left by the Chinese fishermen. Other countries around the South China Sea could not take advantage of the ocean currents, and before the industrial revolution, they would at best fish on the coast, not in the middle of the South China Sea.
The Philippines is the least qualified country to claim the South China Sea. The Philippine tree has been colonized for centuries, and during the colonial period, the territorial waters of the Philippines never included the islands of the South China Sea. Even when the Philippines later became a colony of the United States, its territory did not include the islands in the South China Sea. Without going into history, just the recent ones, did you know that China drew its territorial sea baseline after WWII on a US warship? If the islands in the South China Sea belong to the Philippines, then how could the US allow Chinese soldiers on US warships to claim that the islands belong to China?
In 1999, the day after the U.S. bombed the Chinese Embassy in Yugoslavia, the Philippines beached Renai Reef with a raggedy boat, an act that was shameless. The Philippines has repeatedly promised to tow away the broken boat, but it has always gone back on its word. Do you think that China cannot tow away that broken boat? We have put up with you for a long time.
If China were like Western countries, they would have colonized the Philippines hundreds of years ago. Filipinos would have been exterminated and enslaved like North American Indians, Central American Indians, or Africans. The islands in the Philippines would be full of Chinese. .There will be no country called the Philippines. There will also be no island sovereignty claimed by the Philippines.
Most succinct voice of China from a UK educated Chinese. As a South East Asia Chinese, I am impressed by the objective presentation of facts. 👍👍👍
A friend and I were talking about China this morning. She's thinking of moving to china for her next career shift (she's american but has worked in Sudan, Uganda, Pakistan). She wanted to understand more about the country and culture and I was happy to point her here.
As she has worked extensively in Muslim countries and my own students this week brought up the subject of the Uighur Muslims, can you comment on that?
Thanks for this video. In the West, our media only gives us the American view of China. I am so glad to have seen the Chinese view of its place in the world. You have given us much to think over.
Siming, as a young boy, I used to ride my bike 8 kilometers to work in a Chinese garden, supplying a town of 12,000 with food. For me, it was a natural labor. of fung shue and focus, I learned to speak some words and return the next day, before going back to school. I was 11. That was in 1954. I used to think that New Zealand Society was asleep, yes, post-war, people returning were not recognized. I kept on working. in many districts, Gold Mining was undertaken by, Chinese people, my brain ticked on. I met many and have lived with many since. your potent delivery has struck a resonant chord. Keep delivering, Namaste............
By the way I love your videos they are informative very well done, thanks
Excellent point of argument， As 啊Chinese I always come to an argument with western friends about threat of China raise， apparently you did a great job of interpretation. We need more people like you with great ideas 🎉
Very balanced, objective and well thought explanation and insight. Thank you for this interesting topic and background description 👍
I don't think it's accurate to say China has a history of choosing not to dominate when possible. Chinese Dynasties dominated what they could up to their geographic limitations. Peripheral kingdoms were viewed as vassal and/or tributary states. Ask China's neighbors if they prefer their current standing in the world order over the historical norm under the Qin, Han, Tang, and Ming Dynasty.
作为海外华人，祖国有你这样的女孩儿感到骄傲，虽然我听不懂英文，用翻译软件看的。支持你加油！
看这个视频，自动翻译不管用了😂
Do you agree with what she said that only people of Chinese descent can be Chinese? What if people agree with China’s vision and want to join them, can they hope to be integrated ?
I am fourth generation Chinese in south east Asia.please keep up mores videos on my mother land .I agree with you
We need many more like Siming Lan who can explain clearly and convincingly to the world what China stands for. Thank you for stepping forward to fill in this very important role.
She's explaining nothing while being very dishonest by omitting very important facts that can easily be confirmed by everyone.
I totally agree, her views are awesome and we need more of that type of content on TH-cam.
Foreigners cannot be Chinese, but China has citizens in every country on Earth. Han Master race? Siming Lan should explain China's claim to the bases in the South China sea.
@@smokescreen2146she ignores the reality that the people in Taiwan are NOT Han Chinese and do not speak the same dialect much like Uyghurs. Sooner, rather than later, China is going to have to answer the difficult questions behind the origin behind the pandemic, what role the ccp's delay in notifying the who and what, if any connection all of this had with the international military games taking place around the time of the outbreak. This is why the west is divesting its manufacturing and technology from Chinese territories as a result of the actions of the government, the pandemic and outright espionage by both government and corporations loyal to the ccp.
@@stevengoldfein1591 Too much reading western propaganda huh.
No wonder you know nothing about geopolitics
I'm not sure when the quote at 8:00 was written, but it's quite impossible for Taiwan to get "secession" from China when it's already an independent nation.
If you look back at history, there is no clear dividing line between almost all dynasties (although the textbook will give you an exact year), one dynasty conquered another, and it was a continuous process that lasted for dozens or even hundreds of years. For example, when the Qing Dynasty ruled China, the remnants of the Ming Dynasty still existed for decades. Taiwan and mainland China are in a similar situation, a civil war that hasn't ended yet, or more like one dynasty hasn't fully conquered the other.
如果你回看历史，几乎所有的朝代之间都没有明确的分界线（虽然课本上会给你一个确切的年份），一个朝代征服另一个朝代，是持续几十甚至上百年的持续过程。例如清朝统治中国的时候，明朝残余势力还存在了几十年。台湾和中国大陆是类似的情况，属于一场还没结束的内战，或者更像一个朝代还没完全征服另一个朝代。
What makes the West nervous about China's rise isn't its economic power as much as its totalitarian control of political dissent and its lack of respect for intellectual and other property rights. The Chinese government has not only suppressed dissent at home, but has attempted to control what others say about it and even sent out agents to kidnap native Chinese who have emigrated to other countries if they criticize the Chinese government. Western democracy is based on the idea of individual freedom and the right of the individual and private corporations to own their work and speak freely about what they think. If the Chinese government were as tolerant and respectful of these rights as the video you showed supposedly reenacting the visit of a Chinese emissary to the east coast of Africa in the 15th century, I don't think westerners and Chinese emigres would be as concerned about doing business with China. The CCP runs a surveillance state that knows where everyone is and what they are doing at every moment. That's Orwellian Big Brother invasion and denial of all individual rights to privacy. As the digital age gives more and more power to surveillance states, the rights that individuals in the West take for granted will be threatened far beyond the boundaries of China. The Taiwanese have built their own industry and have chosen to do business with the West. If China has its way, that privately owned industry will be put under the ownership and control of the CCP, which will not do business with the West until it has gained technological supremacy and can dictate terms that are entirely favorable to its surveillance state. This is a big deal. It's not just a misunderstanding.
This is completely false. China has been open to trade since the 1970s when they clashed with the soviets. China bought licenses and private companies invested in China in mass. A lot of copies of things are just tech transfer from the west. Specially in heavy industry and military machines. Their 1980s tanks all had western engines cannons, suspension, fire control systems, etc.
Its exactly the open trade which enriched China and they took advantage of being a demographic behemoth to be highly competitive and grow. Then the US saw it as a threat after profiting from them for decades. When China grew and their people became wealthy to have better life conditions and consumer habits and their market allowed local companies to compete with western ones it didn't seem funny anymore to the US .
You say china doesn't respect intellectual property and steal tech. They do, but as any country they do the other when they can. The whole US industrialization was built on stealing European technology and copying without license. The US banned imports and their industries just copied everything. You know the ballpoint pen?. It was invented and patented in Argentina, in the 1960s s US citizen saw them in Buenos Aires, bought a box and just copied in the US ruining the Argentine company. The US one now is a massive multinational that bought the Argentine one after selling their unlicensed pens around the world.
Japan and South Korea also copied s lot of things. The US seems to have this constant selective memory, but in the 1970s they insulted constantly the Japanese for their low quality rip offs of US brands. Toyota and Mitsubishi were called shit boxes and their models were all licensed and stolen models of US and European car brands.
China currently is being besieged by the US to slow down their progress and try to block them from accessing new technology. Of course they will do industrial spionage when they need. Nothing rare, the US keeps doing it, the US is the major industrial soy in the world, as per the Intel leaks show how the US intelligence collaborates with US companies to spy industrial secrets and steal propietary technology from Europesn, Japanese, Russian and any country that has something nice on their desks.
The US accusations against China is because they don't like China growing and that the Chinese time to time spies on them. They feel offended that others do what they do, the US is an spoiled delusional and entitled entity that believes they have the exclusivity to do whatever they want and tell the rest of the world they cannot.
Finally currently the Chinese are the largest publishers of scientific research on international peer reviewed portals and largest patent creater in the world. Simply there is little niches the Chinese are behind, they already catched up to most tech and now they are further advancing. It is unavoidable, they have too much population and now the resources, in s few decades they will the technology superpower ahead of the rest by sheer brute force of demographics. For worse in the west education has fallen and natives don't study STEM, US scientific research depends mostly on immigrants and exchange college studies or contracted foreign specialists. China don't do gender studies, and such useless college studies, they do what matters, science.its s country of engineers, statistics, scientists. Even their politicians are all engineers, not doctors and lawyers discussing what a woman is in the congress... They discuss serious matters like infrastructure, space programs, trade routes, foreign investment in poor countries to elevate their economy so they can buy their stuff.
Nice! Also, if people listen carefully China's whole purpose is always about saving face? Anyone that has ever led in anything, knows in the real world you must pitch battles to win wars. There is no set standard on this in China but at the whim of its current leader. In short, none of us forgot about Mao's cultural revolution and his little red book. Or how 30 million Chinese were starved to death. Or all the land stolen by the state. Or the actual purpose of their social experiment failing and what actually created the mass exodus to Taiwan in the first place. All this video is about China trying to re-brand itself because they are going broke/failing. Their GDP figures are a proven lie as it is not $13 trillion but $8 trillion. Making their real internal/external dept to GDP over -300%. My guess is China MUST make BRICS successful as they roll into a gold currency back system to survive or start over. They have a greater than 90% failure rate. The actual purpose of the video.
great double standard job👍
Your so called western democracy is full of shits. Look at San Francisco and California now, full of drug addicts, homeless people and horrible crimes on the streets. This kind of freedom and human rights should be kept inside your pocket. No thanks, we don't want any of them.
You just repeat here the common criticism of China by the mainstream western media. But is a bit silly to continue to parrot the virtues of western democracies when you seen what is happening in the US: a widening gap in inequality, a rise in poverty, a toxic social environment, a violent gun culture, a total disrespect for the individual vs. corporate greed, and a rigged electoral system. The US lost its moral high ground many years ago, is a power in decline and is quite anxious about it.
The reality is in fact a bit more complex than the simplified one liners about China that you see on BBC and CNN. It is a fact that the one party system has been tremendously effective in accomplishing a transformation from a rural poor China to a modern but still in development country. China is becoming a regional power, and getting more assertive, yes....as expected after the humiliations of the past. But in the very long history of China there is no tradition of aggressive expansionism as one has seen in the few centuries of power of Pax Americana. And certainly I have not seen China faking intelligence to justify a foreign country invasion. Ah, but yes, we don't talk much about that in the West right ?
Thank you for your comment! it is spot on.
I’m part of your target audience. I studied History in university and took a class on the People’s Republic. I even visited China in 2017. I am also, as an American, anxious about even the possibility of war in the Pacific. You bring a lot of knowledge, experience, and perspective to the table. Keep up the good work. Xie xie
Bot.
@@gianni_schicchi bot
Excellent historical and cultural context. Thanks for your video.
Thanks for this concise overview of China's mentality. We will never understand it because we don't understand cooperation. We are all about competition, and we must win.
If you believe one side represents all that is good and the other all that is bad, you have been deceived by one of them. The human heart has both. Neither good nor bad belong to any group.
On the last puzzle piece - Taiwan. I do recall chinese nationalists claim that russian Vladivostik / the russian Far East is part of Greater China.
And I don't think it will end with Taiwan especially as it has territorial disputes with almost all its neighbours.
The number of peoples claiming that the Russian Far East is a part of China is not significant. I would estimate that less than 0.01% of the population holds such a view (of course, considering China's large population, even 0.01% would account for several hundred thousand people). However, 99.9% of Chinese people believe that Taiwan is a part of China. This is because the relationship between mainland China and Taiwan is considered an unresolved civil war.
@@llih0074 The claim I was talking about was printed in a newspaper. The article was quickly recalled.
Very interesting video, it's nice to see the Chinese perspective, because most of the time we don't get to hear you guys, maybe because you guys use different social media platforms idk. Also I have a question for you, if China isn't all that bad after all, why do they trade with North korea, why they outsource the production of textile there? And about the Foxcon why they install net for people to not suicide? One last thing, why they 'reeducate' the Muslim community or whatever. The west say they are committing extermination of that population.
You are reading uniquely anglo saxon media. It lies. Suggest you start reading, watching media from other non western sources and you'll be amazed . n.b. NOT ONE Islamic state agrees with your views as to the treatment of muslim faith adherents in China ( they live in other provinces as well) ... that should give you a clue
None of your questions will be acknowledged because this is a propaganda video meant to shame the west..... Chinas zero covid policy in which they are locking entire apartment buildings full of people in for a week at a time , who cares? Expolited cheap labor due to 0 care for its work force who are actively suffering , who cares?
@@pearsonfrank if I could speak Chinese or Arabic I definitely would, that's what I've always thought, the best way to get info is to watch the medias of language concerned but yeah unfortunately I haven't learn anything but English and French, so it's cool to see someone that is Chinese that can speak a language I can understand
On your last question, it's because American trained and funded terrorists kept entering China through Xinjiang and killing locals. Extremist ideology claimed many lives, and now we see ZERO terrorism in Xinjiang as well as a rapidly rising population and standards of living there.
How else should China deal with this issue? I can't think of a rosy solution. We can't earnestly believe westerners care about Muslims or Chinese, much less Muslims in China. My honest advice is to avoid anything western media says about China like the plague.
- On NOrth Korea - If China stop trading with North Korea, it wouldn't do any good, especially to the North Korean people. The west likes to use sanction, but the truth is sanctions don't work. Asians have a different way of thinking. The western thinking is "us vs them". But the Asian thinking is to be inclusive.
- Foxcon is a Taiwanese company who manufacture electronics in maindland China, and they are the largest manufacturer for Apple. The profit margin of of an iPhone is 319 dollars, but Foxcon only makes 8 dollars per iphone while Apple takes all the rest. So Foxconn is sequeezed for proft and so in turn Foxconn squeezes the workers. This is why you see a lot of negative news about the poor treatment of Foxconn workers in China. But if you look at the real Chinese brands such as Huawei and Xiaomi, then you don't hear about unfair worker compensations. This is because Huawei and Xiaomi are Chinese companies and therefore unlike Foxconn they don't have foreign overloreds who take 90% of the profits from them, and so they can distribute the pie more evenly with their workers. By the way, this is all the more reason you should buy Chinese brands such as Huawei and Xiaomi, if you really care about the well being of the people in China.
- If you look at the Uyghur population in Xinjian, it did not decline but in fact it has grown 10 times since 1980. In the early 2000s some Uyghurs joined radicalized Islam and they comitted a lot of terrorist attacks in the region. They hurt a lot of innocnent people. the Chinese government worked out those who are likely to become radicalized are the unemployed who don't have skills. So they built "re-education" camps and they made those people attend the camps and learn empoyable skills, so they can find a job and join the mainstream society. So in summary that is China's solution to fight against religious terrorism. I guess from the western perspective, China's policy sounds wrong becuase it forces people to attend schools against their will. But let's remember, during the period, the west's solution to fight religious terorrism was by invading the Middle East and bombed millions of Middle Eastern civilians half way to hell. Maybe there is some cultural difference between the west and China, but to me, China's solution is so much better, because it did not kill any body and it successfully helped the radical pepole to join the society. So I don't know how anyone, especially those in the west, can point a finger at China and critize its policy while the west's corresponding solution killed millions of civilians in the middle east and also created 40 million refugees.
By the way of mentioning, in the USA, the average life expectancy of minority groups (such as black people and hispanics) is 45 years old. In China's Xinjiang province, the average life expectancy of Uyghurs is 72 years old. Those figures are very telling about which country is better at protecting the human rights of its ethnic minority group.
As an American something I feel we all feel is too many normal people die and get injured in wars so the elite don’t look weak. I know the average Chinese and average American don’t want to fight each other. As far as Taiwan I really don’t know what to think, on one hand I support people’s right to self determination, but on the other hand I understand how we would react if a state tried to succeed, see American civil war. I don’t want to live under a regime like China because I value my individual freedom and would fight that to the death but we don’t have a right to impose our will on others. We learned well some of us anyway, in Iraq and Afghanistan that you cannot impose a Western style democracy on a people who do not support it. We all need to learn to live together peacefully or we will all die, it’s as simple as that.
What is this western style democracy I keep hearing. It's simple, you have an election and find some way to vote in the leaders. It doesn't have to be western it just needs a dictionary. As for imposing will, I'm fairly certain that if everyone in Afghanistan felt that the americans were imposing their will, USA wouldn't have lasted 5 minutes there. There had to be someone local they were fighting for otherwise it would be a pretty shit ride. As for a state breaking away from USA, what's the problem with that? If everyone there votes for it then fair game. Sure I appreciate those living outside said state might not like it but that's no reason to go to war to stop them. In the UK it's pretty likely Scotland will break off at some point, if they do, I'd be sad to see them go but I wouldn't be in favour of stopping them. Instead I'd look inwardly and ask "OK we screwed up, because they wanted to leave, how we can prevent Wales from wanting to bugger off too?"
Another point the American and Chinese economies are so dependent on each other that conflict hurts both of us economically.
Actually, Chinese economy is dependent on American investment. America, not such much. Hence the reason the Biden administration is quickly divesting to closer supply chain locations like Mexico. USA built China up when it allowed it into the wto.
False. China depends on stealing our IP and now that we’re pulling out more and more that’ll be a problem. They can’t even fab the latest chips.
@@frank-ko6de true, you even can not find any made-in-China products in US
@@frank-ko6de The largest source of foreign direct investment in China is from Chinese circles like Hong Kong, Taiwan or Macau. Heck even Japanese investment is higher then that of the United States in most cases. Also these are often made by business people wanting to get things done. On the other hand, China holds more than $1 trillion of the U.S. national debt and the Chinese people contribute a large amount to the American economy, Silicon Valley an the infrastructure projects of the World. Also, about half of the world's wealth in the world belong to about the top four or five richest people on earth. So NO. America didn't "built up" China. The Chinese middle class did. Heck, America didn't even "built up" America. The name behind the company and the ones getting rich may largely be American and white but everyone else contributed to the pie.
Your channel has educated me and shifted my perception massively!
Thank you for these enlightening videos. As an American, I am happy to learn more about your people and country. The more we warm up to each other as human beings, the less we will see each other as “the enemy”.
I look forward to watching more of your videos.
Yes let not the peple in the media turn us to enemies. We all can live in peace on this earth. Bring back globalization so we all can entangled with each other, no more war only diplomacy.
How did China come across as aggressive over issues like Taiwan (by threatening to seize it), Hong Kong ("in recent years, Beijing has cracked down on Hong Kong's freedoms, stoking mass protests in the city and stoking international criticism. Beijing imposed a national security law in 2020 that gave it broad new powers to punish critics and silence dissenters, which has fundamentally altered life for Hong Kongers") and the South China Sea ( "encroaching on coastal states' exclusive economic zones, increasing its militaty presence around features, seeking to deny the United States and other countries navigational and other freedoms of the seas, and escalating its militarization of features it occupies"). Also violating the United Nations convention of the law of the sea (UNCLOS), which China signed but refuses to accept the authority of the UN. "China continues to construct military and industrial outposts on artificial islands it has built in disputed waters." Those are the specifics about how China has not just come across as aggressive, but actually has become aggressive in these three areas.
Time has been slapping Fukuyama's face for decades due to his arrogance about end of history. 😂
I can't believe people still refer to Fukuyama, the quack just like G0rdon Chang, these are amarikan wannabes. If their predictions is only half true, at least they could be respected, but they have all been wrong ALL the time.
Gordon predicted China will collapse like every decades since 80s, U$ is so d00med with these experts.
Okay, I am all in with this channel perspective. Far more contemplative than many other's.
I not only agree, I also think that you explain your position very clearly and honestly. So that should help many who do not understand China and who do not take the problem to see all the parts, you do it with sincerity and sometimes it even causes you a double feeling, but I think you are correct and that helps us a lot to understand what a wonderful country that is China. I wish everyone would give themselves that research paper and be more honest. No more that sinophobia, the world is vast enough to contain different options and respect others in their idiosyncrasies. Thanks you do a great job. Congratulations!
US is not the world Sheriff any more, west must iníciate to understand that the world is changing.
Hi Siming,
Interesting to hear your thought & insights, However...
The one thing with regard to Taiwan that you haven't addressed is the belief by many that any takeover would look just like it did in Hong Kong. To an outside it certainly looked like the CCP were the 'aggressors' taking such strong arm tactics and breaking the agreement with the UK - so why should we trust the CCP about anything
The CCP imposed it's sole will upon a people before they were legally entitled to, why would anyone think they would treat others differently if they gain a strong enough position. Why we anyone think the CCP is any different to USA
Hi Siming, thank you for explaining. A Chinese point of view is important to enlighten the issue as a Caucasian who took another country will find difficulty understanding considering what they have today belongs to others long before. And they maintain world influence with military power after they achieve certain degree of economic success. So the rise of China's economy is unsettling to them. It's understandable for one who grew up in such a country & experiencing world influence & power from birth, will find it difficult to accept others rising. So human that one likes to be the boss of all. Interesting human behavior.
Lan, I just love the way you share your thoughts and views about China.
I actually agree with most of what you said. Although one of the exceptions I find to the whole sovereign issues is in regards to Tibet. Tibet was for most part of history an independent state. With only small periods of Chinese rule. Being the bridge between India and China, you can see the influence of both cultures in the people. Where even the language is written in a more of devnagri script closer to Hindi than in Han or traditional chinese script. It has both Confucian and Dharmic philosophy present in the society with the latter being the dominant one. It is very close to the practices in Ladakh (Part of Jammu and Kashmir state in India)
Coming to modern history, the line that was drawn between India and Tibet was through a treaty which was mutually agreed upon and hence upon Independence of India it was kept as the international line. But upon the annexation of Tibet by China, the Chinese refused to accept it as a line that defines Internation boundry. Now this became a sore point between India and China including the war of 1962. There used to be a common saying in India called Hindi-Chini-Bhai-Bhai (Indians and Chinese are old brothers) which used to be reiterated by the then Prime Minister of India Jawahar Lal Nehru with an almost blind faith. But after China attacked India claiming the territory it became an issue that plagues to this day with a lot people blaming him for being naive for trusting China blindly.
For me it is an interesting issue as where China goes wrong in righting the century of humiliation as the borders drawn were done between two states which had nothing to do with China back then. This is where expansionist approach of China becomes most blatent as - in trying to find old glory, it inflicts much pain on the present and the future.
For example, Indian empires at one point extended all the way to Afghanistan and south east asia but if India started claiming such things it would be absurd. So in a world of modern governments such practices ought to be called out.
Many other parts of modern China was historically an independent country, I don't think that's the issue here. You can certainly argue that Corsica had, for the most part, historically been a political entity outside of France, but now it is undoubtedly a French province, and nobody would contest that just because historically it was not part of France until recently. Arguably the Siberian native nations, including various Uralic, Turkic, Mongolic, Tungusic peoples and others had never been under Russian rule in any point in history until the 18th and 19th century. But it makes no sense to say that Siberia isn't part of Russia. The same goes for the United States, which expanded well beyond the initial British colonies on the east coast. It is simply unproductive to claim that somehow territories outside of the original British America aren't legitimate territories of the US. We can't have any serious discussion of modern, established nation-states on that basis.
We have to anchor the reality in some historical consensus. Like it or not, Tibet was most certainly under Chinese rule during the Qing period (1644 to 1911), and in fact there was Chinese troops stationed at the Indo-Tibetan border during the entire period. And the internationally recognized territory of modern China (both the Republic of China and the People's Republic of China) inherits that of Qing China, with the exception of Mongolia which became an independent country in 1921, a fact conceded by China in 1946. Even when Tibet had de facto independence from 1912 to 1950, the international community, British India included, continued to respect China's sovereignty over Tibet. And even for the entirely of the Cold War, the West continued to consider Tibet part of China. This was never challenged at any point, until the 21st century, when Tibetan separatism gains global attention and is seen by the West as a leverage against a rising China. So what do you think the Chinese would think, when all of sudden you throw out the claim that Tibet, instead being a Chinese province, is now an "occupied territory", a victim of Chinese colonialism? They would (rightly) believe it is part of western strategy to weaken and divide China. You could imagine how the Americans would react if China ever insinuates that the US has no right to rule Hawaii, California, Texas, or indeed any territory outside of the East Coast, no doubt they would decry a "CCP plot to destroy America". When you shake up the basis of modern nation-states like that, you go to very dangerous places.
And to bring up the cultural claim, that Tibet is not China because Tibetan culture is different, does not work. China is not a monolithic culture, there are more than 50 native cultures recognized by the state, many of them quite distinct from each other. Even the majority "Han" ethnic group is arguably an umbrella term for several different ethnicities who are as different from each other as the Swedes from the English, or the Romanians from the French. In fact, Tibetan Buddhism was a very significant part of the Chinese culture during the Qing period, with much of the ruling class under the influence of Tibetan Buddhism, it certainly was not separate from China but an integral part of the Chinese empire.
@@lynnjohnny01 I understand the points you make about how it is difficult to reshape modern nation-states. You give the great examples of Russia and France. However, I think it is difficult for Tibetans to have the feeling of being a respected minority in China if their spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, is not allowed in Tibet. Wouldn't it be fair to let him back into Tibet?
Not like Mongolia, China never recognized Tibet independence during that time, only Indians think that is a international line
We Chinese fought in Europe during the Yuan Dynasty, but we did not say that Europe belonged to China。
niubility，你是专业的吧@@lynnjohnny01
Thank you for a very informative video once again! Keep this up and thank you for sharing your world with us! ☸
I think the other reason Taiwan is of such importance to the CCP is a sort of perceived domino effect. There would be other areas of China where the majority of the population would prefer to be independant, and any change to Taiwan's status may encourage them.
Oh the evil CCP, defending their country's sovereignty.
Wow, you bring up points historical points I've been aware of, but connect the dots in a way that makes sense from China's perspective vs what ive been used to seeing here in America. Ill definitely wqtch more of your videos
I am a Chinese who has received good education in both China and the US, and I want to say, being the most powerful country means practically being able to do anything is such a superficial way of viewing how the world works, it may even seem a little like a projection of how China's leaders think the world (should) work: if I have power, I have everything! US was founded on day one on a set of principles including separation of power, the idea is that power is inherently corrupting and a mechanism (instead of good people, or good morals) needs to be in place to manage it. This is deep in the core of US values.
When it comes to Taiwan, isn't it a little ridiculous that China is willing to do whatever it takes, including military operations, to "save face"? If you are a CEO of a company, do you make decisions based on what saves you the most face, or what does the most good for the company? It's a little unfair to compare in this case, because if a CEO does not do a good job, the board votes to replace him/her with a new one; if the CEO of China does a bad job, that is okay because "saving face" is more important. What's more, if Chinese culture makes one proud (including me), and Taiwan shares lots of the same culture, why does it not want to come back? That's a question only China has an answer to, not the US, not the rest of the world.
一个真正自信而强大的人需要殴打比自己弱小的亲兄妹来给自己“长脸”吗？
美国从英国独立出去后，英国人面对美国人的时候会自卑得抬不起头，或者恼羞成怒吗？
Of course, America is an easy target to blame. Don't get me wrong, I live in the US and criticize it all the time, but "American exceptionalism" is such a boring and empty concept to begin with.
I wish more people in the world had such a balanced and considered viewpoint on things as you do Jamie. Indeed every time I ask online "why not ask the Taiwanese what they want?" I get ridiculed and called a clown but no one ever seems to present an actual answer to the question. I find this behaviour very strange... even... robotic one might say...
You summarize this issue with clear concise language, giving people both sides of the issue. Well done!
4:12 - Korea and Vietnam which are historically and culturally distinct from China would beg to differ.
Also as much as one can (validly) ask "What does it mean to be an American?" (you provided a somewhat accurate, but limited answer that downplays the same exclusivity that especially the WASP founding stock of modern America would have over Scotch-Irish, Germans, the Dutch, and later the subsequent groups to migrate to the U.S.), I'll ask in kind: "What does it mean to be a Chinese?" You omit the debate in the early 20th century within China over whether the eventual successor state of the Qing Empire should be a Han ethnostate or a more civic nationalist one, the latter of which was more-or-less the adopted model for the ROC during its Mainland Era.
I assume you consider the other constituents of the "Five Races" (i.e. Tibetans, Mongolians, Uyghurs, and Manchus) as "core parts" of the Chinese state.
This is the modern product of a long process of cultural assimilation and the idea that a Tibetan, Mongolian, Manchu, and/or a Uyghur would have in times past (or even many to this day) as some sort of default setting (in lack of better phrasing) have assumed the identity of being "Chinese" is at best a naive misunderstanding and at worst obfuscating the historical context of both America and China.
I'll give you the benefit of the doubt since you don't outwardly come off as having bad intent, but I do think you and those who share similar sentiments are projecting. China is the last country to be critiquing America or anyone for "hubris."
China still claims to this day many facets of Korean culture came from them. There are some shared features of each respective group but again like you there is a severe omission of crucial information and a tendency to lean towards the most sympathetic / advantageous view from the vantage point of Beijing.
I agree w u here, from a Vietnam point of view, we were assimilated in the past and also being invaded multiple times by China. Our country also adapted this “assimilation” approach as well and do it on local tribal groups. Probably not as extreme as China tho.
I really like this channel because it gives a Chinese perspective on the world today. This is very helpful as the mainstream media seldom expresses this perspective. Learning about the century of humilation was very helpful. I am now an English teacher in Sweden and use your videos to give an example of some ways to work on improving at English. Good work. I look forward to your next videos. Please continue the good work.
This was a thoughtful analysis, and helpful to understanding the perspective of China. However, I do have an objection: the comparison of China and the United States in foreign policy is a misleading one because, until recently, China has not had the financial and military ability to intervene as the US has done. We are just beginning to see how a richer, more militarily capable China chooses to conduct foreign policy, so the picture is not yet complete enough to make a fair comparison. However, the serious consideration China gave of military aid to Russia in their war on Ukraine, their man-made island military bases in international waters in the South China Sea, and their increasingly bellicose rhetoric toward other nations are not positive signs in this regard. What is most concerning is that human rights and individual freedoms are not a part of the foreign policy calculus of the CCP, who see these as "Western values". When the US has failed to live up to these values that are listed in their founding documents, the results have been disastrous; we can only imagine how consistently disastrous China's foreign policy will be if they continue to openly reject these values while projecting their might globally.
I would add that the military assertions in the South China Sea have alienated all neighbors sharing historical claims to the region…none as imaginative as the PRC claim to the entire sea, and a great opportunity to peacefully reunite Taiwan with the mainland was drastically postponed due to oppressive measures in Hong Kong. The peoples of Taiwan have become accustomed to a democratic lifestyle and they have immediately stiffened their resolve not to just give rights they only recently won FROM the KMT to the CCP. Time to think like Deng Xiaoping.
Colonists always make excuses and instead accuse others of being belligerent. The problem is that Americans can only understand the language of firearms
Isn’t it weird that the US considers Taiwan part of China but are at the same time pushing them for separation and arming them?
Maybe there will be a day when China arms Texas to succeed from the union.
Taiwan has nothing to do with the so-called a Century of Humiliation. Please check on how Taiwan was left to struggle for its own survival; meanwhile, another concession to Japan was paid for its return back to China. Furthermore, please review the history to compare the land area of China the 1800’s vs the 1900’s. You will see that all is but politics.
Nonetheless, thank you very much for taking time to produce a quality episode and kind sharing! 🙏
Taiwan also needs to be kept as a buffer against attacks from outsiders that could easily blockade China during times of war, China is already surrounded by multiple bases in Korea, Japan and the Philippines, just like Tibet is needed to protect the water supply of China, Taiwan is needed to protect access to the outside world.
By this way of thinking the UK should invade and claim Ireland even if Ireland might have something to say about that, as we were there once before and we need it to prevent attacks from the USA who are one of our biggest trading partners... and even have military bases in our own country. Come on now...
I do appreciate your honest assessment of contemporary China, but one must separate the Chinese people from the CCP, which is a malignant presence in China, the region and the world. Ask yourself: Seeing what we have seen in Tibet, Hong Kong, the Covid policies and the Uighur concentration camps, would your country like to emulate the CCP system at home? If not, then you must stand against the rise of the CCP as a world power.
Thank you, Siming Lan. China must be strong, stand up for itself and not be destroyed by outside powers. The rest of the world does not want to sink together with the US and the West.
Wishful thinking!
Extremely well spoken and thank you!!
China's behavior in the West Philippine Sea has been anything but benign. Intimidating small-time fishermen, shining laser beams at Philippine patrol ships, removing buoys, blocking supply ships, etc. are but a few examples of China's aggressive behavior. These after assurances from top CCP leaders that these things can be resolved through "friendly consultations". There is a trust deficit between what is being said and what is happening on the ground ( or water ).
Take care of your slums. Stop being a toad living under a coconut shell. No Philippine sea but South China sea
7 months later and a lot has changed and what she said is no longer the case.
the west's anxiety mainly doesn't come with Chinas technological capability. It comes from the chinese cultural acceptance of authoritarian dictatorship. The technological capability is just a factor which increases urgency for these concerns. "The west" fundamentally distrusts the operating principles driving chinese governance. At one point, authoritarian dictatorships need to distort objective truth to stay alive - especially if increasingly consolidated like under Xi Jinping.
So, the global stage gets a nationalist culture that will apply the same extraction philosophy than any other major powers historically have if given the chance (e.g. as already happening with mines in Kongo). Only with the caveat of having a habit of distorting truth to support its fragile authoritarian core. We have George Orwell's 1984 as a novel. We're not particularly fond of its real life implementation.
Gimme a break, the West obfuscates objective truths all the time, does Snowden ring a bell? How about the WMDs Iraq supposedly had? Are news shows in the US showing how they still keep the embargo to Cuba despite UN condemnation? The anxiety in the US comes only because of having their hegemony disputed, nothing else.
"Look China just can't afford to appear weak on Taiwan" those are the words that the west's military contractors want to hear. Those words will get them the war that they want. It is strange how we humans would rather fight a war than appear weak. Cause if you appear "weak" someone will take advantage of you. You know like the west did with China's labor pool, a thing without which we aren't even having this conversation.
Why don’t you let the Taiwanese decide their fate? It would be like a subjugation if it’s not something they want.
I've spent a lot of my life living and working in Taiwan. I never met a single person who wanted to be part of China. There is no consent.
I agree, and as an American I do subscribe to the ideals of self-determination. But for the sake of playing devil's advocate, the Union did not simply allow South Carolina and any of the states making up the Confederacy secede from it and an entire civil war was fought to bring them back into the fold (and as someone from New York I agree with the Union's decision to bring the Confederacy back by force despite the bloodshed during the civil war.)
Why not let those who support reunification in Taiwan return? Why doesn't the United States withdraw from Guantanamo?
@@michaelheschong4855haha well. There was a time where they would have said they would retake the mainland and end the communist rebellion. But that generation is dying off.
@@dingxiong8604 I agree they should leave. But that’s just a detention center and not a full takeover and imposition of a repressive political system on an entire population that should have the right to chose their own destiny.
You are quite persuasive and a great presenter and you lay out quite well China's claim on Taiwan. It would be interesting to hear how China can reconcile, or even resolve, the differential in East/West thinking on Taiwan's future.
The idea that China does not have a history of aggression is absurd. A major part of the territory currently controlled by China was conquered by the Qing dynasty, regained independence after that dynasty fell, and then was reconquered by the communist government. More generally, China's history has been a cycle of building empires by military conquest, having the empires break apart, and having subsequent dynasties build new empires by military conquest. I don't have specific reasons to think the CCP is likely to turn militarily aggressive beyond wanting conquer Taiwan. But I don't interpret Chinese history as suggesting that authoritarian Chinese rulers can be trusted not to abuse military power.
Err, actually during the Yuan dynasty in the 13th century China was even larger than the Qing dynasty. Qing dynasty's rulership of China was was superceded by the Republic of China in 1911, through a revolution (emphasis, a revolution). This means a change of government in China and the ROC government inherited all terrirotries of China. It was more like the French or the Russian revolution which transitioned the country from monarchy to republic. During the transition, what was China's was still China's. After world war 2, the government of ROC and the CPC fought a civil war where the ROC government lost and fled to the province of Taiwan, and established an exile government. And the CPC beame the offical government in China, who is also the sole inheritor of all Chinese terroritories. So the claim that "most of China" regained independence is false.
Also, China's history is not a cycle of empire building by military conquests. The Chinese history was counted in dynasties. Every dynasty was founded by a family who ascended to the imperial throne, they stay on the throne for a few hundred years, the line became weak and other people ursurp the throne and establish a new dynasty. The similar history repeated in every Chinese dynasty. In other words, in Chinese history, every time one dynasty transition to the next dynasty, it was a change of government in China by revolution. It was not "military conquest" of new lands. Historically China has fought border skirmishes, but it has never crossed an ocean to wipe out and enslave the entire civilization. So no, China does not have a history of aggression.
@@walking_luggage8105 If you want to go back farther, a major part of the territory currently controlled by China was conquered by the Yuan dynasty, regained independence after that dynasty fell, maintained its independence through the Ming dynasty, was conquered by the Qing dynasty, regained its independence after that dynasty fell, and was reconquered by the Chinese Communist Party. The point is that the Chinese claim to the territory is based squarely on past acts of aggression and is maintained by the Chinese military acting in the role of a foreign occupying force. (Note that I wrote, "a major part," not "most.") That completely destroys the credibility of claims that China's history should inspire trust that China will not engage in military aggression.
Some transitions between dynasties were much smoother than others. There were times when one dynasty took over the territory controlled by the previous dynasty relatively quickly. But there were also times when China was divided for extended periods until someone used military force to reunite it.
@@nabbar Your claim is revisionist history, based on a superficial undrestanding of the Chinese history and its culture. The lands that China has today are acquired via a history where China was conquered by foreign conquerors (who incorporated their own lands into their new dynaty in China), and then China retain the lands during transition to the next dynasty/government because the very foreign conquerors who conquered China assmilated themselves into China and became Chinese themselves. It was not done by Chinese aggressive expansion.
During the Sung dynasty, the Gin people (the ancestors of Manchus) invaded and annexed the northern part of China, and drove the Sung dynasty south which was called the southern Sung dynasty. Later on, the Mongols came and wipe out both the Gin kingdom and the Southern Sung dynasty, and they established the Yuan dynasty. Since the founder of the Yuan dynasty were Mongols themselves, so the Mongolians incorporated the whole of Mongolia was incorported into the Yuan dynasty. During the Yuan dynasty, the Mongolians assimilated into the Chinese culture to a certain degree. Over time, the Mongolians became Chinese themselves. This is why the Yuan dynasty is counted as a part of the Chinese history. However, when the Mongols conquered the lands not controlled by the Sung dynasty, the Mongols weren't considered Chinese. So you cannot say the acts of the Mongols is "Chinese aggression". Your claim is almost like saying Ireland has history of aggression against the rest of the world because the Great Britain invaded and annxed America, Africa and Asia in the 17th to the 20th century.
The same goes for the Qing dynasty. The Qing dynasty was founded by the Manchus. The Manchus invaded and conquered China's Ming dynasty, and they founded the Qing dynasty. The Manchus incorporated their own ancestral homeland Manchuria into China. The conquering of lands outside of Ming China was done by the Manchus, who weren't considered Chinese at the time (emphasis, at the time). For example, the Manchus went and conquered Mongolia becuase remember the Mongols and the Gin people (the ancestors of the Manchus) had bad blood between them. So once again, you cannot argue the acts of the Manchus in the 16th century is Chinese aggression. However, after the Manchus conquered China, they adapted the Chinese culture and like the Mongolians, they gradually became Chinese themselves. This is why in the more modern days of China (in the past two hundred years), both Manchus and Mongolians are part of China.
This is also why, after the Chinese Nationalist Party overthrew the Qing government in the 1911 revolution and established the Repubic of China, the Republic of China (ROC) legally inherited all Chinese lands formerly belonged to the Qing dynasty. The terroritires that you spoke of never "regained" independence becuase like I said most of them have assimilated into the wider China. In 1949, the Communist Party of China fought a civil war against the ROC and the Chinese Nationalists. The ROC lost the civil war and fled to Taiwan, and it established an exile government on the Taiwan province. The Communist party of China then established the People's Republic of China and it legally inherited all of China from the ROC. During this transition, the "terrorities" that you spoke of never "regained" indepdence.
Also, while it is true that China was divided in certain periods, during the dynasty transitions, but those were considered civil wars. The "division" that you spoke of usually follows the decline of the central government, resulting in the rise of multile warlords in China fighting over the Chinese imperial throne. (for example, the three kingdom era). Those are considered civil wars, not "aggressive expansion".
So no, the claim that China has a history of aggression is unfounded. The sort of claim you are making is historical revisionist, based on a very superficial understanding of China's history and culture. No respectable mainstream historian would agree with your claim. The fact is China got larger over time because the foreign conquerors who conquered China all ended up becoming Chinese themselves, and so the lands controlled by those foreign coqueors, which they incorported into China at the founding of their new dynasty, all became parts of China because those foreign conqueors became Chinese themselves over time.
It is also amusing to speculate, perhaps the reason the west decided not to fully conquer and colonize China during the century of humiliation, was becuase they saw the Manchus and the Mongols who fully conquered China, ended up becoming Chinese themslves.
@@walking_luggage8105 The bottom line is that China holds large amounts of territory that it obtained through military aggression and controls in the manner of a foreign occupying power using force and threats of force to suppress desires for independence. Any nation that operates in such a manner on a long-term basis destroys any rational basis for claiming that other nations should not be concerned about ways it might abuse strong military power in the future.
I support you 💯
as your view is very objective, fact based and logically perfect.
Fine research 👌
You have a natural talent.
Thank you for making it understandable. Iam so pleased you also considered learning English. 😄
Sorry, but it isn't "fine research"
Far from it
I found this perspective to be really interesting.
The one thing I'd note though is that the video focuses on China's government. I live in the Philippines, which is being greatly affected by the Chinese people themselves. Our fish are being aggressively collected by Chinese fishermen. Our indigenous species like the Pangolin and Philippine Porcupine are being aggressively poached for Chinese traditional medicine. There are literally dozens of species being hunted and poached aggressively, and the reason is almost always Chinese need for traditional medicines and/or appetite for seafood.
I have long admired China, but seeing how Chinese people are pillaging the resources of neighboring countries has really opened my eyes.
Cannot believe your excellent video has only been viewed by 1.8 thousand people! It is so refreshing to gain an ‘inside’ view of what we (?) of the Western world tend to have presented as the ‘threat’ of China. I think one of the fundamental mistakes we make regarding the US is in seeing it as a benign Western power. As an old man (72) I grew up in an Australia which was a kind of ‘leftover’ from the British Empire. As a child I regarded all the countries coloured red in atlases as amazing, as they were all parts of the Empire (now the Commonwealth). Great Britain obviously built the Empire by conquest (including parts of China). The ‘empire’ of the US is different & less recognised - their empire has largely been financial: their ‘conquests’ have built around the overwhelming strength of the dollar, their domination of the IMF and the World Bank, as well a few strategically based wars. I served in the Royal Australian Navy in the Vietnam War (where China was directly involved), and it took perhaps another twenty years before I grasped how cynical the American involvement was in supporting a hugely corrupt South Vietnamese government. Often though the US has not needed to make war: the oldest (?) example is probably Cuba - the ability to strangle a country by isolating it totally financially. A more current example is perhaps Venezuela. As to Taiwan, which I have visited, I can see the validity of the points you make regarding China’s attitude - especially the supposed global acceptance of the ‘One China Policy’. I think that China has caused itself great problems in terms of successfully ever re-integrating Taiwan. The first one would be seen as their actions in regaining Hong Kong. The current situation there shows that regardless of the promises made to the then British government, Hong Kong has steadily had its rights flouted & any criticisms more & more severely dealt with. I am sure that many nations including Taiwan have viewed China’s action with alarm. The second point about Taiwan is that it is a stable, well-governed, prosperous community/economy - being (perhaps militarily) herded back ‘into the fold’ of the CCP cannot seem anything like attractive. There is also the point that Taiwan is arguably the largest producer of cutting edge micro-technology/micro-chips. China, like Russia, has managed thus far only to make clumsier versions of these technologies, mostly pirated. It is no secret that China would dearly love to possess this technology (& doubtless Russia would support this). It is just as certain that the US & many Western powers would fiercely oppose this - regardless of paying lip-service to the One China policy. The more recent Chinese incursions into the South China Sea have only hardened both Asian & Western resistance. The South China Sea is the most heavily trafficked waterway on Earth & the governments of the nations directly affected (Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, the Philippines) cannot allow their territorial rights to be simply usurped, any more than international trading nations can allow their ships to accept China’s ‘takeover’ of the sea, despite their claims being denied at the World Court. As a sidelight, when my ship, the guided missile destroyer HMAS Perth left the Vietnam War in 1970 we traversed the South China Sea en-route back to Australia. At the time the communist government of Indonesia decided to close the Sunda Strait. We were ordered to force a passage through the Strait. The first HMAS Perth was sunk in the Sunda Strait by the Japanese in World War II & we were told to pause during our passage to drop a wreath commemorating the first Perth. At the same time we were closed up at action stations & our orders were to force our passage & defend ourselves if we were attacked by the Indonesians. Thankfully, the swarm of Indonesian naval vessels stood to & made attempt to stop our ship. Since then, the Strait is recognised as an international waterway. I think the same thing will apply to the South China Sea - not even considering the issue of the various fishing rights of the SE Asian countries. Whatever, I applaud your videos & find they give a refreshing different outlook on China not often to be encountered in the West.
Being part of China is not seen as a step up in any way -- ask Hong Kong. No neighboring country wants to part of China.
It was only 7 years ago or so when I heard the opinion expressed by people not sympathetic to China that Taiwan is going to "fall back" to China "like a ripe fruit" i.e. that China isn't going to invade Taiwan simply because Taiwan is going to be naturally reunited with China sooner or later. There was a lot of talk about South Chinese Sea but not about Taiwan even though it was already very competitive in semiconductors sector. I think Taiwan began to be discussed a lot when American people got that recent anxiety about China becoming more technologically advanced than US - and people in US remember very well how American automotive industry lost to Japan. I suspect this anxiety sharply increased when TikTok became very popular among young Americans and also when American business circles realized China is dominant in a lot of "green energy" technologies like solar panels etc. - the technologies which are discussed a lot and America is now quite used to feeling like being "the most advanced" country, the leader in the progress of humanity. The threat Americans feel in China is about public image, prestige, "soft power".
Totally agreed. It is very informative and key to the point.
Philippines did echo such claims. It took China to court over the sovereignty of one of the south china sea coral reefs, and China lost but doesn't admit to it.
what court ? your court? 😄
@@xxz397 The Hague tribunal
@@darshanchung Philippine initiated it unilaterally, China even was not presented. it shows information enough
@@xxz397 china refused to go, it’s not like they didn’t know about it. Philippines and China are both signatories to the un convention on the law of the sea, which stipulates that signatory countries settle disputes via arbitration. China was well informed of the Philippines submitting a claim to the tribunal, and refused to go because they knew they had no case. Even though China refused to attend, the judgement of the tribunal is still legally valid in international law.
@@darshanchung China doesn't care
Thank you for showing me a different perspective.