I have to say that I regard the whole tone of this topic is profoundly xenophobic and is directly at a single country, completely ignoring ignoring the serious abuses of that occur much closer to home.
I understand where Peter is coming from and think this topic should be removed from the site.
I think it’s too late Jane. They’ve played a very clever game over the last twenty years, They’ve used cheap, maybe even quasi slave, labour to feed the West’s insatiable desire for consumer goods AND mega profits, they have appropriated any intellectual property they fancied and they have built up a bind boggling war chest of dollars. Not easy to see how to “bring them to heel” now. Look at how they’ve just slapped Australia for stepping out of line.
Maybe a strong alliance in the West could do something about it but with the lunatic Trump in the US and the UK going cap in hand to them for a trade deal I don’t see that happening any time soon.
1 Like
Removing the topic isn’t going to change people’s views Mike 
If you want you could start another topic about other countries abuses. As you say there are many to choose from, Brazil for example.
The purpose of this topic was to tease out how people feel about China. Whether we like what they feel is, IMHO, largely irrelevant. It’s better to know and better to understand.
Personally, think China is an enormous threat to Western values.
But, “whatever”, as they used to say in Little Britain.
2 Likes
Perfectly true John, but neither is leaving it in place.
Plus… i’m not sure how people who have chosen to live “abroad” can be described as xenophobic. We are xenophiles, to coin a phrase. 
Good point, I should have said Sinophobic.
Not so Mike. The light is shining on China at the moment because it’s where Covid-19 started whether it was from a God-awful wet market or escaped from a lab. Some of the things that go on in that country are horrific and it’s only right to discuss them. Remember Sars started there too. None of this is inaccurate.
We can also talk about human rights abuses in Saudia Arabia or maybe even the inhumane treatment of refugees in Calais. Why don’t you start a thread about whatever it is that you are alluding to that concerns you?
The only person using inappropriate language, with reference to China, on this thread is Peter. Using words like chinks and velly crever is alluding to inappropriate racial stereotypes. Try using those terms on Facebook or other social media and see the kind of response it would get.
Izzy x
4 Likes
Or even arkoudaphobia… 
Some of the things that go on in all countries are horrific.
But these second-hand criticisms are coming from people who have never been to China and most likely have no academic qualifications to speak on these matters with authority.
If they really feel so strongly, they could do a Gladys Aylward and go out there and show them the error of their ways.
I have nothing more to say on this subject.
1 Like
I wasn’t in Germany or Poland or The Netherlands during WWII so does that mean I can’t denounce the holocaust? That is an unsound argument.
There are plenty of terrible things going on around the world and I acknowledge that but China just happens to be in the spotlight at the moment.
Izzy x
4 Likes
Thanks @Cat I was struggling to understand why Peter could ‘despise ‘someone for making a joke yet he was allowed to speak like this to another member,I did begin a reply saying as much last night but decided against it
2 Likes
But Mike, doesn’t that mean we’d just prefer not to know? Isn’t always better to know? Surly we both now know better how people feel and that has to be a good thing IMO.
i think people should be talking about China.
It clobbered Tibet, it’s about to clobber Hong Kong and given half a chance it would clobber Taiwan. it’s throwing shapes in the East China Sea, increasing its influence in the Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa and building up its military. I think that’s worth discussing, don’ t you?
Or should we wait until they invade Poland 
7 Likes
Come on Peter, you know it was Britain that drove the Opium trade.
"the traffic that developed in the 18th and 19th centuries in which Western countries, mostly Great Britain exported opium grown in India and sold it to China. The British used the profits from the sale of opium to purchase such Chinese luxury goods as porcelain, silk, and tea, which were in great demand in the West.
Source; opium trade | History & Facts | Britannica
Anyway, the lat time the British sent boat ( H.M.S. Amethyst) up the Yangtze it sidn’t work out too well. Plus they’ve put a bloody great dam on it so you probably can’t get a gunboat up anymore.
We considered incorporating a cruse on the Yangtze when planning a holiday back im 2004, before the dam was built, but all the cabins were two berth. My wife and daughter would have been fine but I would have had to share. We went somewhere else 
Anyone of British origin needs to be very careful of criticising China, since their not very distant ancestors were ruthless drug pushers, officially backed by the navy, as you point out. The monstrous damage done to the Chinese people is a debt that has never been repaid.
China is making rapid progress. When they are able to feed all their people, they may be able to afford the luxury of living as we would like.
Meantime, undernourished Chinese are busy making medicines for over-fed Westerners to cure the illnesses caused by a lifestyle of excess. If we keep buying from them, they might be able to divert some of their energy into making medicines for their own people that are more effective than parts of endangered animals.
1 Like
I thought that you had said that you had nothing more to say on the subject!
3 Likes
I don’t disagree with anything you say Mike. But you’re talking about the people. I’m talking about the Regime. The Regime is ruthless, probably more so with its own people than (currently) abroad.
6 Likes
Not far from it Peter.
Grown ups know that they have to take responsibility for their actions and going back into history does not acknowledge the state of affairs that face us now.
The world will demand an investigation into the Covid outbreak. It has to take place to learn the lessons to prevent it happening again.
China might be able to keep its own people in a state of verbal lock-down but the rest of us need answers.
4 Likes
Touché! So having broken that promise, I will add one more line.
Several member of my family are Chinese or of Chinese origin. Their standards of morality and personal hygiene are indistinguishable from those of any educated Westerner. But they have the advantage of living in rich countries and can afford such luxuries.
Some would think you are talking about the UK or the USA! 
2 Likes