China's Role in Ukraine | Peter Hitchens

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  • เผยแพร่เมื่อ 29 พ.ค. 2022
  • In this short, Peter Hitchens talks about China's response to the war in Ukraine while also noting the effect democratisation had on oppressive regimes around the world. He also discusses with John the realities of a possible nuclear war.
    Peter Hitchens is a British journalist, author, and broadcaster. He currently writes for the Mail on Sunday, where he is a columnist and occasional foreign correspondent. He regularly engages with a great many topics in public debate on major television & radio networks and at universities around the world.
    Peter has just completed his tenth book, a critique of the modern British education system. His past works include The Abolition of Britain and The Rage Against God.
    A former Trotskyist, he partly attributes his return to Christian faith to his experience of socialism in practice, which he witnessed during his years reporting in Eastern Europe and later from Moscow during the collapse of the Soviet Union.
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    Conversations feature John Anderson, former Deputy Prime Minister of Australia, interviewing the world's foremost thought leaders about today's pressing social, cultural and political issues.
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    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Peter Hitchens:
    Twitter: / clarkemicah
    Peter's blog: hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/

ความคิดเห็น • 131

  • @burtingtune
    @burtingtune 2 ปีที่แล้ว +79

    I hate to admit that I used to believe that as people´s living standards improved they became more democratic, but unfortunately looking at our own society all I see is people more worried about which model of mobile phone they have while their liberties are destroyed in front of their eyes.

    • @2KSnSLifestyle
      @2KSnSLifestyle 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      Democracy is an untested system. No democratic country has survived more than 300 years. If anything democratic countries are destroying themselves with constant war and internal conflicts.

    • @Kurtlane
      @Kurtlane 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      That's true. In the very beginning of Americans going into Afghanistan people who were really poor were basically OK. It was the wealthier people who could afford a radio or a tape recorder and were thus exposed to jihadiat propaganda that caused trouble.

    • @brunokagawa6287
      @brunokagawa6287 2 ปีที่แล้ว +5

      It is indeed a false belief to equate prosperity with democratisation, whichever direction the casual relationship goes.

    • @solideogloria...7421
      @solideogloria...7421 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      God is.blessing our enemies just like he said he would.. This is to provoke his people to turn back to him.

    • @importantjohn
      @importantjohn 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      What liberties being destroyed ? No generation has had such extensive social / legal rights. Get a grip

  • @alexvalin9085
    @alexvalin9085 2 ปีที่แล้ว +9

    Peter Hitchens spittin facts left and right.

    • @SagaciousFrank
      @SagaciousFrank ปีที่แล้ว

      And good old fashioned (un)common sense.

  • @charleswu1541
    @charleswu1541 2 ปีที่แล้ว +13

    The territories in the Russian Far East were never really Chinese lands. They were instead inhabited by the Jurchens, who were always viewed by the Chinese as barbarians (see the construction of the Great Wall). However, the Jurchens ended up conquering China and establishing the last Qing Dynasty, so the lands were incorporated into China. A lot different than say, Hong Kong, which had always been a part of China since ancient times.

    • @marylou3995
      @marylou3995 2 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      Thank you for that history lesson😊

    • @pad1258
      @pad1258 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      I learnt something today, thank you 🙏🏻

    • @PeterXiao1
      @PeterXiao1 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      Yes, you are correct. Hitchens is fed typical western narrative and lies and actively promotes them himself. So I won't trust his analysis. He asks for consistency, which is good

    • @marcthomas4488
      @marcthomas4488 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      Perhaps that was a bad decision for their people in hindsight, as now they are stuck under prcs jurisdiction.
      The conquerors became the conquered

    • @jimbocho660
      @jimbocho660 ปีที่แล้ว

      This is like saying the British royal family and aristocracy aren't British but Norman.

  • @gerhard7323
    @gerhard7323 2 ปีที่แล้ว +26

    China's turbocharged economic ascent was powered less by the West's lofty desire to seed democracy there and far more by the desperation that followed the financial crash of 2008 and its need to keep its massively over-indebted consumer economies afloat on the cheap.

    • @charleswu1541
      @charleswu1541 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      One-third of global growth since the 2008 financial crisis, to be exact. Also, the West's share of global GDP has gone from 65% pre-2008 to less than 50% now. More than 1% decline in GDP per year and no signs to stopping. Just because the growth lost by the West may now not just be China does not change this terminal decline. Some like Germany cope better than others, like little England.

    • @decekfrokfr3mdx
      @decekfrokfr3mdx 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      Nothing to do with a desire to spread democracy, don't be so naive. More a desire to cash in on a sleeping economic giant with a population of well over a billion.

    • @Minchya
      @Minchya 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@charleswu1541 This will change now Charlie, the West has awoken to the CCP's malignancy !

    • @gerhard7323
      @gerhard7323 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@charleswu1541 True, but Germany's economy has been heavily reliant on Chinese growth and Russian energy up till now.

    • @nickm1727
      @nickm1727 2 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      @@charleswu1541 the reasons for US growth are massive oil and gas reserves, huge fertile land, open access to Atlantic and Pacific, no hostile neighbors, large and good demographics. The reasons for China's growth have been an ability to import oil, gas, food, and raw materials, a huge low cost labor pool, and an ability to export finished goods to other countries. The reasons for the US growth are the same as they have always been, but China has a rapidly shrinking population and with globalization going into reverse permanently (Covid-19, trade wars, cold war II) it will have trouble both importing oil, gas, food, raw materials and exporting finished goods.

  • @jerryrichardson2799
    @jerryrichardson2799 2 ปีที่แล้ว +6

    Thanks so much. Thoughtful and historically informed commentary.

  • @naguoning
    @naguoning 2 ปีที่แล้ว +8

    Although I would not agree with John Anderson on many things (eg I think climate change is a big issue and I am not religious) I always find these videos very interesting. I have one suggestion that was not mentioned about why people wrongly expected China to become more democratic as it developed economically. This is what happened in some other Asian countries (eg Taiwan and South Korea which were both dictatorships a few decades ago but are now quite democratic).

    • @magnaviator
      @magnaviator ปีที่แล้ว

      China is 1.4 B people. I hope they never become democratic because my experience with democracy is one of corruption, demagoguery, and war mongering to win elections. Democracy doesn't work.

    • @naguoning
      @naguoning ปีที่แล้ว

      @@magnaviator Works in many countries. Most of the wealthy countries in the world that are not micro states like Lietchenstein or the Vatican or oil wealthy are democratic. In fact the only exception in Singapore. The EU, UK, USA, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Australia, NZ all wealthy and democratic. My experience of China has involved seeing lots of corruption, wealth inequality, wasteful government spending, housing prices at a level that most people can't afford etc. Much more than in Taiwan which is democratic. Dictators often use wars and war mongering to try to hold onto power.

  • @melb6528
    @melb6528 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    In the UK there is very little comment about casualties in Yemen and Somalia , and writers in the comments section of a UK national newspaper suggest that the population of areas held by the Russians in Ukraine should use I.E.D's all as we know them as car-bombs.

  • @gerhard7323
    @gerhard7323 2 ปีที่แล้ว +19

    Hitchens echoes the point that's been made repeatedly for years about Western cherry picked moral relativism vs moral absolutism.
    Little wonder that much of the world outside the West, certainly in terms of sheer numbers, refuses to outright condemn Russia's actions in Ukraine.

    • @Minchya
      @Minchya 2 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      Botswana - Botswana was one of the 87 signatories to the UN letter condemning Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Cabo Verde - The Prime Minister of Cabo Verde José Ulisses Correia e Silva condemned in a Facebook post the invasion of Ukraine and called for the search for solutions through diplomatic channels and dialogue.

    • @elektrotehnik94
      @elektrotehnik94 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      You’re looking at the world too simplistic; decisions are multi-factorial in their make-up -> moral, geo-political (militarily, economically), culture-dependant/ “political atmosphere”-dependent, future-gain/loss-dependent, history-dependent, domestic-balance-of-power-dependent…
      Moral relativism vs. absolutism doesn’t even begin to satisfy the complexity of real-world human collective’s decision-making complexity.

    • @gerhard7323
      @gerhard7323 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@elektrotehnik94 True, but our politicians seem intent in the West in presenting our decisions to our own peoples and the rest of the world as the 'morally correct' ones when, in fact, they are so very often made in our own self-interests to the obvious detriment of others.
      There seems to be this prevailing mindset in the West then, certainly amongst the populations and its media, that the rest of the world is too backward and/or dumb to see these actions for what they truly are.
      I have no problem with the idea of realpolitik whatsoever, but what I have come to increasingly resent is the way in which these harsh choices are dressed up in a cloak of morality and respectability by our politicians and media.
      Our societies, generally, are more open, safe, secure and prosperous than others not least because we have leant to continually exploit and undermine others far weaker and less so outside the blessed fold.

  • @davidcarpi8721
    @davidcarpi8721 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    Wow so great. Please keep doing this!

  • @briangc6104
    @briangc6104 2 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    What can Biblical eschatology tells us of the current events? Knowing Biblical eschatology is an eyeopener.

    • @robertholland7558
      @robertholland7558 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      Any concern about eschatology is irrelevant to live, be it biblical or otherwise!
      When we are dead we are dead, what , if anything, happens beyond that is beyond human understanding and comprehension.

    • @briangc6104
      @briangc6104 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@robertholland7558
      So says a man without vision. Proverbs 29:18 "Where there is no vision, the people cast off restraint:..." What can be known about God is plain to all, because God himself has made it plain to all.
      Romans 1:20 For since the creation of the world, God's invisible attributes-his eternal power and divine nature-have been understood and observed by what he made, so that people are without excuse."
      You Robert, have deliberately taken your eyes off this truth, and when you are dead you will perish, alone for eternity with the awareness of squandered opportunity.
      The fool is one who has no excuse yet says in his heart "There is no God".

  • @solitarianihilista1454
    @solitarianihilista1454 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Wake me up when they're finished.

  • @caesarforlife1663
    @caesarforlife1663 2 ปีที่แล้ว +4

    Let's be clear Putin was not the first to raise the issue of nuclear weapons instead it was Zelensky who in early February said he wanted to acquire NWs and then the French Foreign Minister stating that NATO was a nuclear power. Putin responded not by saying they would use NWs but that if his country faced an existential threat they would use NWs in other words "keep out of it" because it very well could lead to it.
    Hypocrisy lays behind every Western criticism of Russia and China.

    • @DieFlabbergast
      @DieFlabbergast 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      *lies behind (unless you're talking about chickens)

  • @royhay5741
    @royhay5741 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    Love these two. Smart men.

  • @gerhard7323
    @gerhard7323 2 ปีที่แล้ว +11

    People seem to forget that a still economically broken, but still militarily powerful Russia around 1994 made positive noises around joining NATO.
    Though many Europeans were reportedly keen on the idea the US dismissed the idea out of hand.

    • @jw-vx8im
      @jw-vx8im 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      be good to see a documentary on this

    • @HelenA-fd8vl
      @HelenA-fd8vl 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      By Clinton?

    • @gerhard7323
      @gerhard7323 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      @@HelenA-fd8vl It would have been under his first presidency, yes.
      It was also under Clinton that NATO sought to expand eastwards in spite of earlier alleged assurances from both Baker and Bush Snr to Gorbachev that this would not happen if the Soviet Union pledged not to oppose the reunification of Germany.

    • @HelenA-fd8vl
      @HelenA-fd8vl 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@gerhard7323 Clinton also got China wrong, as well as many other experts. He argued that as China became more prosperous, it would inevitably become more democratic. I am not particularly against him. I am not American. But it just goes to show that clever people dont always get it right.

    • @HelenA-fd8vl
      @HelenA-fd8vl 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@gerhard7323 this argument about NATO expansion assumes that the peoples of Eastern Europe should have no say in their defense strategy.

  • @hegel5816
    @hegel5816 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    So this is the better Hitchens...???

  • @danielbtwd
    @danielbtwd 2 ปีที่แล้ว +12

    Considering how well the Russian economy is bearing up and the success of the military operations, in spite of all the sanctioning from the West, It appears Putin and Co are fully coherent. More so than the head socks in the West.

    • @Kurtlane
      @Kurtlane 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      If they were truly coherent, they wouldn't have started this idiotic war.

    • @Minchya
      @Minchya 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      When you pull your head from your arse you will see things differently !!!

    • @reginaldwinsor2759
      @reginaldwinsor2759 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      This is pure propaganda. Russian conquest is far from successful considering the resources used.

    • @danielbtwd
      @danielbtwd 2 ปีที่แล้ว +7

      @@Kurtlane it started in 2014.

    • @mengsiongkheng113
      @mengsiongkheng113 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      @@danielbtwd well said. Learn the history of Ukraine.

  • @navylaks2
    @navylaks2 2 ปีที่แล้ว

    I always dreamed of a united Europe, from Reykjavík to the Ural Mountains.
    One that was free of the Muhammadan lobby

  • @SagaciousFrank
    @SagaciousFrank ปีที่แล้ว

    John Anderson: 'Beijing'
    I'm surprised Peter Hitchens didn't give you an education about that. It's called Peking!

    • @Baker68
      @Baker68 หลายเดือนก่อน

      No, it’s called Beijing

    • @SagaciousFrank
      @SagaciousFrank หลายเดือนก่อน

      @@Baker68 , only if you like to kowtow to China's bully boy tactics.

  • @johnglenn2539
    @johnglenn2539 2 ปีที่แล้ว +8

    The old, cold war joke still stands:
    An American says to a Russian, "our system is better: we are free to criticise our government"
    The Russian: "do are we: we are also free to criticise your government"

    • @jamesrodgers3132
      @jamesrodgers3132 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      This mentality is exactly the problem. You think Russia is the Soviet Union. The world has changed. Try criticising lockdowns, or vaccine mandates, or net zero, or getting involved in Ukraine, and see how free you are to criticise your own government.

    • @johnglenn2539
      @johnglenn2539 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@jamesrodgers3132 who said I favoured the behaviour of Western illiberal regimes over covid, war whistle-blowers etc?

    • @marylou3995
      @marylou3995 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      I think this quote is attributed to Ronald Reagan -

    • @themsmloveswar3985
      @themsmloveswar3985 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      Oddly enough, the US Internal Revenue System targets conservatives and libertarians for auditing more aggressively than average.

  • @sweetcell8767
    @sweetcell8767 2 ปีที่แล้ว

    People do condemn China for the awful things they do to parts of their population. However, condemnation of human rights, though valid, cannot be as far as the conversation goes. The principle Hitchen’s speaks of is a fine thing, but the fact is China is on its way to being the biggest state in the world; it’s GDP will be 2.5x the size of The US by 2040. This idea that we can simply fold our arms and lecture China is ridiculous. The West can actually learn quite a bit from a state that dragged 600 million people out of poverty.

  • @abrogard142
    @abrogard142 2 ปีที่แล้ว

    they have nothing to say. allude to the horrors of life past and present. yes we know.

  • @shahirramjee626
    @shahirramjee626 2 ปีที่แล้ว

    👏👍🙏🇿🇦🇿🇦

  • @hamza1947
    @hamza1947 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    2,900 missiles fired by Russia at Ukraine between February & July? In the Gulf War alone, the US & its allies dropped 88,500 tonnes of bombs on Iraq in a single month, including countless civilian targets like the Amiriyah bomb shelter.

  • @cavendish009
    @cavendish009 2 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    I wish Peter Hitchens would speak more clearly !!! I love what he says but I find him SO DIFFICULT to hear what he says !!!!

    • @polyannamoonbeam
      @polyannamoonbeam 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      Transcript fixes that ..!

    • @DieFlabbergast
      @DieFlabbergast 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      You, me, and everybody. It's up to the video maker to raise the audio volume level.

  • @chrystallapsomas2030
    @chrystallapsomas2030 ปีที่แล้ว

    I have never know so much fake news as there is today.

  • @eugenps
    @eugenps 2 ปีที่แล้ว

    dude's confused

  • @5ty717
    @5ty717 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    Mumbling rant… am I wrong… am i wrong?

  • @jmy106
    @jmy106 2 ปีที่แล้ว

    Lotta waffle

  • @CharlesWestinghIII
    @CharlesWestinghIII ปีที่แล้ว

    Hitchens is so genuinely unpleasant in his way of presenting his own deluded positions as facts. A true manipulator showing how damaging words can be.

  • @dwin4037
    @dwin4037 2 ปีที่แล้ว +7

    Hitchens been wrong more times than he’s been right in his life! Nevertheless, he’s worth listening to!

  • @GAMEOVER-td4kv
    @GAMEOVER-td4kv 2 ปีที่แล้ว

    this guy has no idea what hes taliing about. hes ideas are so 20th century

  • @robhaythorne4464
    @robhaythorne4464 2 ปีที่แล้ว

    Peter is no Christopher. But, having observed that, he is just as morally ambivalent as Chris used to be before 9/11 when he finally bought a clue.

    • @danielbtwd
      @danielbtwd 2 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      As much as C.H. was a tower of intelligence, his views regarding the Iraq war were highly questionable. (Strangely so).

    • @jamesrodgers3132
      @jamesrodgers3132 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      Thank God he's not.

  • @Rjsjrjsjrjsj
    @Rjsjrjsjrjsj 2 ปีที่แล้ว +12

    Mumble. Mumble mumble. Couldn't even finish the video. 🙄

    • @paulklee5790
      @paulklee5790 2 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      Consider having your ears checked out by a medical expert, they are probably full of pomposity...

    • @Rjsjrjsjrjsj
      @Rjsjrjsjrjsj 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@paulklee5790 Fortunately I undergo an annual physical. Ears are perfect. Thanks for your concern. 🙂

    • @paulklee5790
      @paulklee5790 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@Rjsjrjsjrjsj whatever

    • @Rjsjrjsjrjsj
      @Rjsjrjsjrjsj 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      @@paulklee5790 indeed. I did thumbs up you. I guess you can't actually see that. Got your drift. 👍

    • @DieFlabbergast
      @DieFlabbergast 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      Use headphones: I did, I had to. But it was worth it.