HelicioNOD wrote:China has a long way to go, and it should begin trying to give its people basic freedoms soon.
So by whom you are letting yourself be colonised is now dependant on what level of "democracy" they have reached? I don't think it's necessary to rehash the old arguments about the USA not being the bearer of freedom and democracy at all, especially when it comes to underdeveloped countries. Their main interest lies in securing economic advantages across the globe, they are no different from the PRC in that regard.
On another note, one has to challenge the claim that the USA is a humanitarian force in Africa, while "China is supplying dictators with weapons" once and for all. A recent Norwegian story showed called "
An Empirical Analysis of Chinese versus US Arms Transfers to Autocrats and Violators of Human Rights, 1989 - 2006" showed that the USA far outstrips China in that category.
HelicioNOD wrote:Do you know anyone from Africa?
These are quotes from the Norwegian study I cited above:
"According to a 2007 Pew Foundation survey of citizens in 9 African countries (Kenya, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Senegal, Mali, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda and Ethiopia), by margins ranging from 61% to 91% they rated Chinese influence in their country as positive, exceeding the percentage of respondents who see America’s influence as positive by between 10% to 30% (Kohut
2007).
Similarly, a survey of university students and professors conducted in nine African countries found that in all nine majorities or lopsided pluralities responded that Chinese policies were more beneficial than western policies. (Sautman and Hairong 2009a: 741). Only in South
Africa was America’s influence viewed more positively than China’s in the Pew survey: 55% viewed US influence as positive, versus only 49% who viewed China’s influence as positive, producing a comparably modest gap of 6% in favor of the US. Views of China itself were positive by a net margin of over 20% in nine out of ten African countries, except South Africa, where 47% had a net negative view versus 44% who had a net positive view.
Of even greater relevance for our findings, citizens in Nigeria, Mali, Kenya, and Ivory Coast, by margins ranging from 58% to 87% saw China’s growing military power as a good thing. In the university student and professor survey mentioned above, majorities in all nine countries responded that China’s rising power will have a positive or somewhat positive impact on Africa, even in South Africa (Sautman and Hairong 2009a: 745). In the Pew survey, by margins ranging from 80% to 96% in these countries plus Senegal seeing China’s rising economic power as a good thing. However, 54% of Moroccans saw China’s growing economic power as a bad thing (Kohut 2007). Reflecting China’s popularity at the grass-roots level, growing numbers of average Africans are beginning to dream the “China dream” of a better life through emigration to China. These findings suggest that the western discourse about China siding with authoritarians against their people does not reflect actual perceptions in Africa, and reinforce the central finding of this paper, namely that in comparison with the US, China is much more supportive of democratic regimes and less supportive of authoritarian regimes than has hitherto been recognized."
For clarification: I am not endorsing any of these views - I rather believe that it is necessary to do away with some of the prevalent propaganda and emotion that has thus far prevented serious, rational and level-headed discourse of the matter.
- By Pants-of-dog
- By Tainari88
- By Bill_Nye