First of all, I want to say that it’s wonderful to see all of you here, and your critical support of the nation I proudly call home. But more and more recently, especially reading through Chinese internet too, there has been a sense of overconfidence and overglorification of China. It is honestly a little worrying at times for me, because as much as I love my homeland and is proud of what we are doing, I know full and well that we are still a long way to go. I see this sentiment of China being the glorious land far away as a bastion and utopia against Western Imperialism and while there’s a lot of truth behind that sentiment, and I definitely understand why one not living in China would choose to believe this (I live in the US now and I understand your pain, fellow US comrades). I just want to remind everyone to exercise dialectal materialism on this subject and try to look at China in a less idealised way. We cannot grow to be better without recognising our mistakes. Anyways that is my little message to you all. Have a nice day!
As a Westerner, I think a lot of this sentiment comes from how far advanced China is in comparison to our own societies. I am forced to essentially step over homeless people on my way to class while China has eliminated absolute poverty. I am ostracized for studying principles of Marxist economics while China has built the most successful economy of the century based upon them. When pressed, I always acknowledge that China has a long way to go. I don’t think the work culture is sustainable, I don’t always agree with their foreign policy, and social dynamics can be reactionary. However, I would never lead with those criticisms because I’m not Chinese and I live in the most corrupt, capitalist country on earth. It’s much more important for my own community to be exposed to the juxtaposition between active Capitalism and Socialism, and for me that involves sharing China’s successes without constantly qualifying that my support is critical.
I do not glorify China, but I’m sure it comes across that way when I am defending China and their successes against a lib. There’s just so much shit and propaganda to overcome. Of course China has its flaws, and that’s why people full all across China participate in the CPC.
I get you, but i will say that overconfidence is just a very normal human sentiment that is difficult to control on a large scale. We have been seeing examples of this since the ancient times, several countries and empire shot themselves in the foot because they were blinded by their own feeling of superiority.
I agree, we should be careful, but on the other hand there isn’t much to do about it.
