discussion Messy confrontation between Xi and Trudeau

[Robert]

People acting like Justin Trudeau should be subservient because he’s from a less powerful country   Xi literally has some of the most right wing nationalist policies and is responsible for some of the biggest human rights violations of the 21st century (as have most American/British leaders). 

[Bosque]

Not people being mad at Canada for having free speech

[ProudLBS]

why is Winnie the Pooh afraid of making eye contact with JT? 

[A.R.L]

Is this the same president who allows animal abuse and concentration camps in his country? Well, he can jump off the bridge. My biggest wish is to see this diabolical and corrupt government along with nk and russia fail worse than the soviet union. 

[Phantom]

13 hours ago, Communion said:

 

 

12 hours ago, Communion said:

 

Weird posts. Even if I get some of where you're coming from - however, I'm not sure if any of this language would or should fly for any country? Especially if it was flipped around, which it does get pretty often by RWers. 

 

"Canada? Small country lap dog of big daddy America zero sphere of influence, livable land?"

 

*throws dart at one of the "tiny" countries in SEA with millions of people, where an increasingly large number of countries have to deal with economic ramifications by China over domestic and international policy decisions, much like US pressures countries via sanctions*

 

"X country? Lmao Xi's lap dogs  only following big daddy China because <insert reasons> does anyone know where this country is? Any influence?" 

 

Like... This is incoherent, and the latter would actually come off as borderline offensive and even racialized especially when talking about certain countries. This kind of language you see when Hindutva nationalists speak about Pakistan and China, for instance. 

 

Hot take is maybe GDP, size, and liveable land shouldn't factor into uhhh a mean girl brand of "you're irrelevant" geopolitics? 

 

Don't get me wrong because I don't have any interest in Canada, the myth of amorphous "Western"/"Judeo-Christian" value sharing countries or whatever but I don't like the idea of power and might allowing what kind of response countries are allowed to give. I don't think anyone is fuming because Xi Jinping, a non-white leader is being "confident"  let's be serious.

 

[anti-bitch]

2 hours ago, ProudLBS said:

why is Winnie the Pooh afraid of making eye contact with JT? 

Because he fears he will turn gay  Justin is so handsome.

[Communion]

1 hour ago, Phantom said:

the latter would actually come off as borderline offensive

Yes, I'm glad you used intuition to see the very obvious point of the post that was to use exaggerated right-wing tropes flipped around to mock the European and Western countries who use such rhetoric and ideas of power and might. 

 

The entire point of the post is to slate and mock the multitude of users in this thread alone who themselves think the might and power of their Western countries means they get to tell China and Chinese people (because, no, a people cannot be separated from their nation) how they exist within their borders and geopolitically.

 

And the irony that this chauvinism is not even rooted in the reality of putting one's money where one's mouth is but some kind of power-by-proxy of trading one's servitude for America's destructive might. 

 

Of course it's easy to imagine a future where the West ~puts China in its place~ for people from countries who won't actually be putting up the majority of funding and bodies to participate in somehow another destructive cold war.  Meanwhile the vast majority of reactions on Weibo are praise for Xi finally speaking with the assertiveness and force of someone who is the leader of the 2nd most powerful country in the world, especially to one as weak-willed as Trudeau. I mean, what could he teach Xi? How to do blackface? Preach about human rights? Will he being doing this between his country still continuing to dig up through mass unmarked graves of children? Xi shutting him down and calling him naive before walking off is going viral.

 

Even the China Watchers on twitter are unnerved at Xi's willingness to scold and put down Trudeau right to his face. 

 

 

Edited November 17, 2022 by Communion

[Phantom]

36 minutes ago, Communion said:

Yes, I'm glad you used intuition to see the very obvious point of the post that was to use exaggerated right-wing tropes flipped around to mock the European and Western countries who use such rhetoric and ideas of power and might. 

Now idk if I'm just reading snark here where there isn't (and I apologize if I am), but is the glad/intuition thing genuine, or a dig at me being Captain Obvious-esque? Because I will be honest I did think it was some reverse psych-gotcha thing but it just had such a sincere sounding set-up that...

 

As for the rest of your post, there isn't much that I wholly disagree with EXCEPT with the aggressive narrativizing going on in some places:

 

36 minutes ago, Communion said:

Meanwhile the vast majority of reactions on Weibo are praise for Xi

...yes? I have a lot of friends of Weibo and WB is a lot more politically ~diverse (though not in the sense Westerners are used to) than most, it is largely pro Xi except for some recent pockets related to ZCov. This is not new.

 

36 minutes ago, Communion said:

finally speaking with the assertiveness and force of someone who is the leader of the 2nd most powerful country in the world

Now  Is this implying Xi is known for being meek mannered across the world stage and that his term since 2013 is one where he has been timid?  This is objectively not the case. "WILL THE LEADER OF CHINA PLEASE FINALLY ACT LIKE THE LEADER OF CHINA?" is a thought no one has ever really thought of - except for largely hawkish CCP hardliners. In fact, even when he delivers stern comments they often want him to go further on Weibo.

 

I think this is the crux of my problem.

 

Xi insulting Blackface Trudeau (a picture I often used to spam to let people never forget) to his face is funny and awkward. What it is not:

 

-A win for non-white leaders and a beacon of confidence to follow when talking to white leaders;

-A personal growth moment for Xi who has delivered FAR more harsher words (maybe not social manners) before DIRECTLY; (In Asian MLM circles one thing people stan is the brunt language CCP officials never shy away from, I assure you "so naive" is like... the first step )

-Reparation - emotional or material - to any of the native population genocided by Canadians;

-A redemption arc for um...I dunno, the Global South?

 

Cause like you're adding all this to a conversation where the core point of contention between them was about the way to have a conversation. I'm not sure why we're talking about Blackface/anti-blackness too because there's plenty of stones to throw on both sides (and no, this isn't me both sides-ing their histories but saying that anti-blackness is rather global); INCLUDING a Zwart Pete sized mess China insists on having much like our "ideal" European friends; but again, not the point..

 

Sometimes two leaders can interact in a funny/awkward/uncomfortable way without it being a footnote in a century long quest for identity and assertiveness in a post-colonial world  I think MbS slamming Biden to his face about oil, forcing the US to sprint to Venezuela is hysterical but is it a win for the Middle East and for Arab diaspora, given how deeply the US messed up the ME?  But I guess it'll depend on personal perception.

Edited November 17, 2022 by Phantom

[Protocol]

Winnie the Pooh can go **** himself

 

Good for Justin standing his ground and reminding him people in Canada are free. There's a reason millions from China try to immigrate here and never the other way around.