When people try to paint China as a dangerous expansionist country I just point out that Australia was ruthlessly settled less than 200 years ago by the British, and is under strong US influence.
What you say is true, but there's not much we can do about anything that happened 200 years ago. Preventing escalation into a war due to China claiming ownership of busy shipping channels, for example, is something that is probably worthwhile attempting now, rather than pointing to it with a cringe in 2219.
And if you're say Russia, even virtually surrounded by NATO, they're constantly being accused of being expanionalist. And the same with China.
So I think it's totally OK to bring up history, because if we look at China's rise compared with the rise of Western countries, we see that China's path to supremacy has been far more peaceful.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-01-09/east-timor-tears-up-o...
None of the superpowers, or their little hangers-on, exhibit the kind of personalities you'd save from a burning building. They probably lit the fire.
Russia invaded Ukraine.
In practice the powerful flex when they need
There's this weird double standard thing where people in the West act like they can do what they want, and then flip when someone else outside of the "in" group does the same thing.
Yes. Russia's excuse for taking umbrage at exercises, that it was scarred by the memory of Nazis invading under pretext of an exercise, has grown pathetic from overuse.
It happened nearly a century ago and -- try this on for size -- NATO isn't Nazi Germany.
"BUT BUT they had missiles pointed at the US." Yes well that was over 50 years ago and Cuba isn't Nazi Germany.
China is playing the game that we wrote the rules of.
We are so used to a world lopsided to the West that we don't realise that this is not a 'normal' state of affairs in historical and demographic terms.
The author is very careful to distinguish critiquing the policies of the PRC from bigotry towards Chinese people.
This is stroking the "yellow peril" fantasy, nothing more. Sensationalism mixed with thinly-veiled racism. It sells books...
> Who cares what a 'normal' state of affairs is in historical and demographic terms?
Everyone should because it helps avoiding fighting losing battles.
The period absolute power of the West on the world is coming to an end. This is unavoidable.
I believe Taiwan and Tibet may be overdue for some re-assertion.