3 minutes ago, riclag said:

So much for the Smart Authoritarian CCP. Still an infant on the world stage,too busy with internal control to handle real strategic squeezes!

Here's fresh proof CCP isn't the unstoppable force some claim, "STRATEGIC STRAIN: China SQUEEZED by Iranian oil disruption". With the Strait of Hormuz basically shut down from US/Israel strikes on Iran, CCP is losing 15–23% of its cheap Iranian oil imports.

Resilient democracies like Japan/S. Korea/Taiwan have a plan and diversify, The CCP gets exposed by its allies/Iran. Not exactly mastering global dominance when a ME flare up could cripple their economy.

Google ai overview:

Magnitude of Potential Loss: If the disruption in the Strait of Hormuz continues, it would severely affect this supply chain. Some analysts estimate that combined with other regional disruptions, it could impact up to one-fifth of China's oil supply

Still talking to yourself, straining further and further away from your own claim that started the topic.

On 2/17/2026 at 12:35 PM, riclag said:

How many millions did that involve?

Condemn Guantanamo and black sites fully. But don't use them to equate or excuse the CCP's far larger, ongoing citizen killing machine and global authoritarian export.

Pretty sure Guantanamo wasn't filled with american citizens either. Not that im condoning the place just stating the reality.

28 minutes ago, blaze master said:

Pretty sure Guantanamo wasn't filled with american citizens either. Not that im condoning the place just stating the reality.

Great point , Guantanamo was filled with non citizens ,terrorist ,anarchist ,enemy combatants. Some international leftist are making a play for world dominance by promoting the CCP as a leader,one party rule, one leader ,they never talk about the millions of its own citizens they put into eternal rest to gain control or the authoritarian style jails similar to Gittmo ,re education camps, internment camps.

Google ai overview:

"Estimates suggest Chinese authorities may have detained up to 1.8 million Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in Xinjiang's internment camps, constituting the largest-scale detention of ethnic/religious minorities since WWII. Operating extensively since 2016, these secretive facilities involved mass detention and reported deaths".

Genuine question building on the Beckley/Brands article I started with since the CCP is actively trying to make autocracy safe and appealing worldwide by undermining democracies.

Why do some posters here (and in related threads) seem to put the CCP/China's one party system on a bit of a pedestal, praising its stability, poverty reduction, role as a global supplier/builder, or success against the West, while constantly denouncing the USA as the real destroyer, imperialist force, or source of chaos and destabilization?

Despite the west's flaws (interventions, domestic issues, social issues) is it not better than a Xi's king for life rule, 1 party state, the surveillance state, suppression of dissent, or the historical track record of similar vanguard party ideologies that were responsible for mass deaths by the millions, purges under Mao/Stalin era..

Is this driven more by anti Western geopolitics, a belief that actually existing socialism in China works despite the authoritarianism, or something else?

What is it with the facade/fugazi/authoritarian countries fascination that killed thousands/millions of its citizens to get/and gain control, despite their historic bloody past?