Nearly a million Tibetan children live in state-run residential schools on the Tibetan plateau. Chinese authorities subject these children to a highly politicized curriculum designed to strip them of their mother tongue, sever their ties to their religion and culture, and methodically replace their Tibetan identity with a Chinese one. Children as young as four have been separated from their parents and enrolled in boarding kindergartens under a recruitment strategy based largely on coercion.
I am all for criticizing the Chinese government and bad Chinese policies, but “China is a shitty haven for cheats and liars” is a broad generalization verging on just straight up bigotry.
I mean, I think it’s not an unfair generalization for a country with a single party government. China is a nation state with one party. What else could he be referring to. I see the exact same generalozatons made about America, sometimes by Americans, and don’t think it is bigotry, and also it’s less justifiable a claim In a pluralist democracy. I think it’s really a statement about the state and not a generalization of the people or race.
It’s important to say “Chinese government” and not “China”. That’s not a minor point. Saying “country X is a shithole” is the kind of racism we criticize Trump and the rightwing for, and for good reason. I’m surprised by this rhetoric on Lemmy.
I shouldn’t have to say this, but a non-Chinese person calling China a “shitty haven for cheats and liars” is obviously not comparable to an American criticizing their own country. Likewise, a white person saying a black neighborhood is a shitty haven for cheats and liars is different than that white person criticizing their own neighborhood.
China is a place and country. Chinese is a ethnicity. As a Chinese American myself, I had no confusion over what the commenter was saying. When we talk bout nations and their governments, it is pretty common to just refer to the country’s name. I don’t necessarily agree with the statement being made, but I did not at all take it as a ethnic or racial criticism.
Frankly, I’m not even sure how someone reads the comment that “China is a shitty haven for cheats and liars” as directed mostly at the government, and not about the country, people, and culture in general. The government is a haven? The government is a cheat and liar? These readings are a stretch even at the level of syntax.
My bad, I should have said ‘the government of China is a haven for cheats and liars, of which there are many’. The sentiment carries on to people supporting that government socially.
In all honesty the truth can be said about any government these days. But I don’t read many articles about Sweden carelessly breaking airspace regulations the rest of the planet is in agreement over or subjugating minority races/political dissidents, or brainwashing a generation of students.
It’s fair to disagree, I want to hear counterpoints if you have some.
No counterpoint, just a downvote. Classic.