China has lashed out at Germany after its foreign minister called Xi Jinping a “dictator” and summoned Berlin’s ambassador for a dressing down, in the latest flaring of tensions with a western democratic power over how the Chinese leader is described overseas.

  • Ignacio@kbin.social
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    2 years ago

    Obviously he’s not a “dictator”, and that foreign minister should be sacked. Because Xi is a “supreme almighty emperor whose words are worth to be enforced or else…” A bit of background knowledge is never a bad thing.

  • TheSaneWriter@lemmy.thesanewriter.com
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    2 years ago

    Most dictators haven’t gone by that term, preferring instead some other executive role like chairman, supreme leader, or president. If Xi doesn’t want to be called a dictator, maybe China should start holding open elections, see how popular the CCP really is.

    • sevenapples@lemmygrad.ml
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      2 years ago

      The CCP has higher approval rates than western governments and the vast majority of Chinese believe they are living in a democracy. This is confirmed by western studies; latest one I’ve seen was from Harvard.

      • Syldon@feddit.uk
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        2 years ago

        The CCP does not have confidence in that though, hence the way it runs the elections there.

        • sevenapples@lemmygrad.ml
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          2 years ago

          I’d say that it has confidence in that, but their elections and government are structured in a different way.

          • Syldon@feddit.uk
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            2 years ago

            Just like Ford sold their cars in any colour you want, so long as it is black.

            • sevenapples@lemmygrad.ml
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              2 years ago

              If 95% of ford owners were satisfied with their black cars, vs 40% for another manufacturer that provides cars in multiple colors, then ford would be the better manufacturer.

        • zephyreks@programming.dev
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          2 years ago

          A fair bit, actually. China’s political system is basically a popularity system from bottom to top. At the lowest level, politicians only stay in power if their population is happy. This trickles up to the provincial level, where politicians again only stay in power if their population is happy. At a national level, the national leaders stay in power by building, essentially, large cabinets out of different provincial and regional leaders - thus, their entire position relies on keeping the provinces happy.

          It’s not the perfect system, but Chinese citizens can fairly easily impact local and even provincial policy and, by extension, influence national policy (recently, by repealing the COVID lockdowns with mass protests).

          The CCP isn’t an absolute monarchy or something. At the end of the day, it serves it’s people. The power of the Chinese economy is in its industrial capacity, after all, not in its wealth: the needs of the people need to be addressed to keep the country stable.

          • discount_door_garlic@lemmy.world
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            2 years ago

            don’t make conflations with the USA and other liberal democracies. There are plenty of transparent, effective democracies where popular votes matter massively, and saying because the USA is electorally broken that everywhere is only serves the narrative that true liberal democracy “isn’t possible” i.e., exactly what China and Russia suggest.

        • sevenapples@lemmygrad.ml
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          2 years ago

          Enough for them to believe that they live in a democracy, it seems (and I don’t say that sarcastically).

          It’s not like people in liberal democracies have more influence. We can’t choose who runs, and each individual’s vote is negligible. I don’t know the specifics of China’s government, but I suspect they value being able to influence local policy and higher official elections via the Communist Party more than a direct vote on its leader – I would too, honestly.

  • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmy.ml
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    2 years ago

    Antagonizing China while going into a recession is a really bold move by Germany. I guess that’s what you get when you put opportunists in charge of running a country.

    • hackris@lemmy.ml
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      2 years ago

      It’s definitely part communists, but I think mostly special interest groups, maybe even from China itself.

    • OR3X@lemm.ee
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      2 years ago

      Gee, I wonder which group of users would do something like that…

      • MeowZedong@lemmygrad.ml
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        2 years ago

        Probably the antiracists. You should wonder if you’re on the right side when you are promoting and supporting racism.

              • MeowZedong@lemmygrad.ml
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                2 years ago

                Dehumanizing people through racism is a well established method the US has historically used when manufacturing consent to go to war among its people. Look at depictions of Germans and Japanese in WWII. Look at depictions of Koreans, the Vietnamese, Afghans, and Iraqis during the invasions of their countries.

                Just because its origins weren’t racist doesn’t mean it hasn’t taken on a racist meaning. Sinophobia is rooted in racism and ignorance.

        • OR3X@lemm.ee
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          2 years ago

          LMAO! Racist? I didn’t know “dictator” was a race! Please, enlighten me.

            • DarthFrodo@lemmy.world
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              2 years ago

              The Taiwanese use the meme all the time. Obviously not because it looks like Xi in particular and especially because of fragile censoring, but because they like to be racist against themselves. That must be it.

              Calling Trump a guinea pig is probably also considered racist in lemmygrad.

              • MeowZedong@lemmygrad.ml
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                2 years ago

                Taiwan is where the former Republic of China retreated after being defeated by the People’s Republic of China. The censorship of Xi=Pooh in China isn’t rooted in racism, it’s rooted in the political conflicts between the ROC and PRC. China censors these comparisons because they are used by opponents to attack the government. You don’t have to agree with their methods to understand why they would want to do this. Censoring realistic threats to the ruling government is a common practice in all nations.

                The racist aspect originates from how the meme is used in Western circles where there is a long history of racism towards minorities and the enemies of the US as well as a long history of sinophobia.

                If your understanding of history, racism, and their opinions of Trump are so shallow, maybe lurking Lemmygrad to learn why users from this instance act so aggressively towards racism and war-mongering propaganda would be helpful.

            • unphazed@lemmy.world
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              2 years ago

              Not racist at all. It’s against one person. Trump’s face is seen on an orange all the time. No one is calling for racism. He just looks like a damn orange.

                • Honytawk@lemmy.zip
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                  2 years ago

                  If only Obama was depicted like that, yes.

                  But it is commonly used to depict black people in general.

                  While nobody uses Winnie the Pooh to depict Chinese people, only their dictator.

              • MeowZedong@lemmygrad.ml
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                2 years ago

                There’s a big difference here.

                Is Trump’s skin naturally orange? Is there a long history of oppressing white people in the US and other NATO countries?

                Just because the Winnie the Pooh meme didn’t originate as a racist symbol doesn’t mean that it isn’t used to propagate racism and sinophobia.

  • quindraco@lemm.ee
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    2 years ago

    Very noticeable that they didn’t specify how he wasn’t a dictator, nor what other label would be more appropriate.

      • quindraco@lemm.ee
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        2 years ago

        I use a client that can block instances, so I have all of Hexbear blocked. It radically improves the Lemmy experience.

          • GoodEye8@lemm.ee
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            2 years ago

            There’s differing opinions and then there’s just shittalking. When it comes to differing opinions most of Hexbear interactions deliberately (by the admission of their own users) fall under shittalking. They deliberately antagonize and troll anyone with a different opinion because in their mind anyone who doesn’t agree with them should be trolled. You don’t get differing opinions from Hexbear, you get a bastardization of a differing opinion. One that is different only on the basis them telling you you’re wrong, and in most cases even that has to be intuited.

            Nobody should wade through shit to get a few nuggets of gold which is why most people just block Hexbear.

          • zooi@feddit.nl
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            2 years ago

            Have you ever bothered to read the rules of your instance? If I go on there and say anything negative about your cute dictator I’ll be banned. However, you can freely go on our greedy capitalist instances and praise your teddy bear as much as you want. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black. I guess your mind can’t comprehend being free.

            • Red Wizard 🪄@lemmygrad.ml
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              2 years ago

              Do you mean the rule about not being Sinophobic? Is that really a hard rule for you to follow? I like to look at objective reality instead of just barking the same nonsensical shibboleths when the topic of China arises.

              • zooi@feddit.nl
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                2 years ago

                No capitalist apologia / anti-communism

                You would whine even harder if lemmy.ml had No communist apologia / anti-capitalism in their rules.

                • Red Wizard 🪄@lemmygrad.ml
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                  2 years ago

                  Most anti-communism has no basis in reality and often are myths perpetuated by state agencies. All Anti-Capitalist sentiment is rooted in the material realities of our world and life. To deny socialist historical reality is to deny your own history, and ultimately is an admission of your disingenuous support of the truth.

                  Historical Materialism is truth seeking in practice. It requires you to have a fact based, objective view of our past and present.

                  Also I don’t know why I would whine, because I’m not using lemmy.ml. That instance can have whatever rules they want. I wouldn’t block or defederate from them because of it either. But if you are not interested in seeking the truth and objectively observing reality, then I guess you can insolate yourself from it and keep your echos.

  • gnuhaut@lemmy.ml
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    2 years ago

    In China, the people directly elect local council (e.g. village or town level) representatives. Those local council members than select who among themselves to send to represent them at the next level above. This continues all the way the National People’s Congress and the Standing Committee.

    This sort of organizational structure is more-or-less how political parties in Germany also work; so by that logic the Green party itself would presumably be an undemocratic institution.

    OK, but the CPC can control who is allowed to run in elections, right? Well, Germany banned its communist party: In Germany, any organization (and their members) that wants to abolish the liberal order, capitalism, private property and so on is subject to repression, surveillance and outright bans, and this is enshrined in the constitution. So no fundamental difference there either: In Germany the liberal institutions decide who can and cannot run, and they have decided the commies are out.

    Empirically, the Chinese government enjoys way better approval rating than any Western government, Chinese people believe themselves to be living in a democracy, and the Chinese administration seems way more responsive to the actual needs of the people, what with the poverty reduction and all. How is this possible if they’re so much more undemocratic than Western liberal democracies?

    • Laitinlok@discuss.tchncs.de
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      2 years ago

      Well I think the issue is the people in China haven’t experienced the democracy in US so the comparison would be hard to measure. As funny as it gets the people in the US can laugh at Joe Biden but not those in China that could laugh at president Xi.

      A note accompanying the poll results offers a disclaimer, stating that “in authoritarian countries, positive perceptions might result from different conceptions of democracy, high levels of government satisfaction, or fear of speaking out against the government.”

      • Krause [he/him]@lemmygrad.ml
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        2 years ago

        I think the issue is the people in China haven’t experienced the democracy in US

        Don’t worry, the Americans haven’t either.

    • MeowZedong@lemmygrad.ml
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      2 years ago

      The only empire is the US empire and the way they talk about themselves as an empire, they’re proud of it too. Yell one-word feel-good slogans at them like “CHANGE”, “FREEDOM”, or “DEMOCRACY” and all the citizens shout and cheer because that’s what they’ve always been told to do.

      Try sitting during the pledge, the singing of the national anthem, or insulting the military. The US empire will have none of that. Truly the land of the free.