Mr T
Senior Member
BoJo and his goons have not only killed off the recovery of my industry, they've done bugger all to help its very own national flag carrier.
Why should the airline industry have been given special treatment? Its employees were given the same access to Covid-19 support that other industries were. British Airways weren't the only company that lost money.
Might've been something to do with the fact the airline is run by a holding company based in Spain I suppose, but I digress.
Virgin didn't get a government bailout either.
Yay democracy.
So here's the key point, how would things have been better if the Conservatives passed a law making them the only legal party in the UK, with a few "loyal" other parties being allowed to participate in elections in a token fashion? Presumably having Boris Johnson as Prime Minister For Life wouldn't have made you any happier with your lot, would it? Democracy isn't the path to a great government, it's a method of holding it accountable.
I'm sick and tired of the west downplaying accomplishments by the Chinese nation state...because our government wasn't democratically elected
I'm sorry to break it to you, but the media in democratic countries frequently focuses on the negative rather than the positive. That's often the same for their home government. Even the Chinese media tends to only report positive stuff about other countries if they're a close ally of China or it's related to them doing something involving a deal with China. Otherwise it's pretty negative or filler.
Until recently when I asked people very conerned with human rights why they tended to focus on the US and had no problems buying Chinese-made items, the most common comment I heard was that China shouldn't be held to the same high standard as countries like the US.
Also, there certainly used to be a lot of praise for China's accomplishments under Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao. If there has been a rise of criticism since then it's because of Xi's ham-fisted approach to diplomatic relations and domestic crackdown (Hong Kong especially).
I'd argue the guy behind the PRC wheel seems legitimate based on his competence as a statesman, and more importantly what he's managed to accomplish.
I'm not sure that Xi has accomplished anything other than using his power to suppress his opponents, use resources that were generated under previous governments and tell diplomats to start getting angry. That's more akin to what Donald Trump did after inheriting his father's money.
His engagement policy with Taiwan has been a failure - he's overseen Taiwan electing a DPP President twice and with a legislative majority (something they never had).
He's also managed to annoy countries that were previously fairly well disposed towards him thanks to trying to cover up the Covid-19 situation until it had spread internationally.
Xi isn't the emodiment of every CCP politician that has gone before him. He shouldn't be given any praise for the leadership of his predecessors.
We have a saying in Hong Kong 身有屎, which basically you've got something to hide, or you're full of crap. All I have to say that most of the "highly-skilled and wealthy Chinese" you described pretty much fall under this category.
IT professionals, medical staff, vetenarians - they were pretty ordinary and didn't have anything to hide (I saw how they lived).
they're all now lawyers, doctors, investment bankers... well we're looking to come back to the Motherland.
Your doctor friends want to work in a state-run hospital in mainland China where doctors get paid peanuts? Your lawyer friends want to work in a country where cases can be decided on the basis of which plaintiff is most connected to local/central government? No idea about the investment bankers, but they'll be making money wherever their companies have offices, so I can see if they wanted to move back home.
Voting is less meaningful than being rich.
Unless you live a country like China or Russia where the state can take your money away and throw you in jail, because you said something bad about its leader.
One example I always like to point out is the healthcare system in the US. Rich companies and shareholders don’t want to see their profits diverted away, so somehow the media and politicians have convinced most of the poor people who could benefit the most from reform into voting against their own best interests.
The Affordable Care Act remains generally popular in the US, and the largest majority is for the poorest Americans (select income under $40,000).
Another example is the idea of rule of law. In theory, it means you can go to court to fight the law or other parties that you have grievances with. In practice/reality, it just means rule of money.
That's drivel. Trump has lost cases just recently when ordinary citizens got injunctions against his bans against Wechat and Tiktok. They might not win their cases eventually, but it goes to show that the US state doesn't always win. If it was just about money then the US government would have pre-booked "the best" lawyers and then automatically won.
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