Conquer Club

If the Belgians invented mayonnaise then they deserve to shunned by the rest of the world.

-TG

Mayonnaise is the super ingredient. You can put it on anything or in anything.

Symmetry wrote:Did you know that the EU spent more on foreign aid in a year than China has in the last 60 years combined? It's an interesting little stat, open to a variety of interpretations, but all the more fascinating for it.

The US and EU have a lot of soft power that Beijing is rightly wary of. China stresses that its aid come with no strings attached, which should pass literally nobody's BS detector, especially given that one obvious string is that countries can't recognise Taiwanese sovereignty.

Actually, you miss the mark here.

China is not giving aid away, but it is slowly (sometimes not so slowly) an surely spreading its people out to establish markets, buy and sell goods to even the poorest of countries. Sometimes these people are subsidized, sometimes not. The money they make individually is not always great, but they are there to stay.

The US hands out money to leaders, makes demands and promises that often fail in their implementation. We are viewed as bug bullies who either cause war or leave. China simply makes money and offers small jobs, skimming off profits.

Who do YOU think will really have the larger footprint?

PLAYER57832 wrote:

Symmetry wrote:Did you know that the EU spent more on foreign aid in a year than China has in the last 60 years combined? It's an interesting little stat, open to a variety of interpretations, but all the more fascinating for it.

The US and EU have a lot of soft power that Beijing is rightly wary of. China stresses that its aid come with no strings attached, which should pass literally nobody's BS detector, especially given that one obvious string is that countries can't recognise Taiwanese sovereignty.

Actually, you miss the mark here.

China is not giving aid away, but it is slowly (sometimes not so slowly) an surely spreading its people out to establish markets, buy and sell goods to even the poorest of countries. Sometimes these people are subsidized, sometimes not. The money they make individually is not always great, but they are there to stay.

The US hands out money to leaders, makes demands and promises that often fail in their implementation. We are viewed as bug bullies who either cause war or leave. China simply makes money and offers small jobs, skimming off profits.

Who do YOU think will really have the larger footprint?

China makes its fair share of demands too. Taiwan being just one of the examples. Foreign aid will always come with strings. China certainly has people power, but foreign Chinese communities aren't necessarily sympathetic to the regime.

I genuinely see it as pretty complicated. Bit of a cop-out, I know, but if China wants to rival the US beyond simply having more people, it will face reforms.

Symmetry wrote:China makes its fair share of demands too. Taiwan being just one of the examples.

Yeah, just like the US bullies everyone into saying they believe Obama was born in Hawaii.