• Riverside@reddthat.com
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    1 day ago

    Please explain to me how weak and isolated China is, the producer of half the industrial products of the world. Please explain to me how isolated and weak the Eastern Block was in the previous century as the second world power.

    • CanadaPlus@futurology.today
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      1 day ago

      China, weak:

      It is an important 1/6, though, and they have tried to coerce policy changes with trade threats a bit. If you live here, you know we’ve gotten a few rounds of it.

      Isolated, in the sense when they do something like that, other countries voluntarily going along with it isn’t even a question (the whole “only Han Chinese are people” thing kills earnest cooperation). Except maybe North Korea, although they ~only trade with China anyway.

      Which dovetails into the next thing. Comecon was based in Europe, but if you’re not counting it as part of the historical West, I revise that to “the Eastern bloc did much more coercive trade policy than the West”. Since they didn’t trade freely with the greater world at all, it was strictly conditional and on a case-by-case basis.

      • Riverside@reddthat.com
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        19 hours ago

        GDP in USD is a bad metric, try GDP PPP.

        they have tried to coerce policy changes with trade threats a bit. If you live here, you know we’ve gotten a few rounds of it.

        Responding to US sanctions tit for tat is not equivalent to China starving other nations to enact regime change, are you arguing in bad faith or do you truly believe those two are comparable?

        only Han Chinese are people

        What on holy Earth are you talking about? You live in the worldwide capital of Atlantic trade slavery and you believe China is more racist than you somehow? 1 in 4 black men in the US are put in jail at some point in their lives, you’re literally accusing China of things that are only true in the US lmao, nice projection

        “the Eastern bloc did much more coercive trade policy than the West”. Since they didn’t trade freely with the greater world at all

        And didn’t enact international blockades such as the one the US is enacting on Cuba or like US+UK enacted in 1950s Iran to destroy the economy and remove the democratically elected president Mosaddeq.

        Your argument is so incredibly flawed that you’re having to conflate “China responded to US sanctions tit for tat” and “the Eastern Block was mostly self-sufficient” with “the US forces international embargos on other countries with the explicit purpose of starving the population to push for regime change”. You are literally seeing in real time how Gazans are fucking starved by the US-supported siege of their population which blocks aid and food from entering (let alone trade) and you feel compelled to defend the genocidal USA anyway

        • CanadaPlus@futurology.today
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          4 hours ago

          You live in the worldwide capital of Atlantic trade slavery and you believe China is more racist than you somehow?

          Well, typical American, assumes everyone is also American, even literally on Canada@lemmy.ca with a user called CanadaPlus. Black slavery was never a major part of our economy.

          Your ilk claims to be anti-American, but somehow you’re overwhelmingly American, mostly white and actual third world people think you’re goofs. Basically, go home yank, and take your conspiracy theories with you.

          GDP in USD is a bad metric, try GDP PPP.

          Most of what you wrote needs no debunking, but I will address this for anyone reading. That’s based on a goods basket of some kind, and usually meant to represent household spending (although if you’ve actually been to a poor country, you can see it still misses the mark of actual lifestyles).

          For broader economic power, real dollars (or renminbi or pesos or whatever unit you like) is best. Because that’s what you actually trade with.

          • Riverside@reddthat.com
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            3 hours ago

            I’m literally a Spaniard, not a Yank… Oh, sorry, you’re from North American Country #2 in genociding native populations, not from #1, my bad!

            Great job disregarding the difference between economic sanctions meant to starve people with the explicit purpose of regime change vs. lack of trade in general due to self reliance or response to US sanctions. You’re illiterate.

            For broader economic power, real dollars (or renminbi or pesos or whatever unit you like) is best

            For broader economic power you could measure actual industrial output: tons of iron, amount of ships built, energy consumed, any actual metric and not an arbitrary accounting unit. China’s central bank artificially devalues its currency in the international market to boost exports and productive capabilities, if you knew literally anything about economics you’d be aware of how this impacts GDP measurements in dollars.