this post was submitted on 15 Dec 2025
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[–] ODGreen@lemmy.ca -1 points 1 day ago (10 children)

I mean, China does also spend on their military and harass brown countries.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago (9 children)

https://x.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1786968298636423210

Every time China visits we get a hospital, every time Britain visits we get a lecture

[–] ODGreen@lemmy.ca 6 points 1 day ago (8 children)

Whataboutism.

China is #2 in military spending after the USA.

As for harassing brown people: well there's the whole Uyghur thing. And the simmering fight with other countries over islands in the South China sea.

Two things can be bad. These are not sports teams where one side wins and the other loses.

[–] comfy@lemmy.ml 4 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

Two things can be bad. These are not sports teams where one side wins and the other loses.

Yes. I completely agree. However, it's important to dispel false equivalence. Every country spends money on military, that doesn't imply they're all bad or neglecting their citizens.

Why is the US spending so much on military? Why is China spending so much on military? Why does the US routinely invade countries in other regions? Why does China suppress Uyghur people in the Xinjiang conflict? Like you said, two things can be bad, but it's also negligent to imply the two situations are comparable.

China is #2 in military spending after the USA.

I don't believe they have another option, given the USA's military and aggression.

It's telling how limited their spending is - consider China's disproportionate economy, size and population, and their borders. According to Wikipedia, they only spend 1.7% of their GDP on military - that's alongside the Netherlands, Czechia, Italy and Spain.

[–] ODGreen@lemmy.ca 1 points 20 hours ago

Yeah that's the thing. USA and China are both bad, sometimes due to the same thing (imperialism, capitalism, cronies running things etc), sometimes for unique things. Saying one country is good doesn't make the other bad in the same domain. And vice versa.

However it is extremely important and necessary to compare things. Like you have compared military spending between different countries. The USA's manifest destiny CAN be compared to the Han supremacy in China especially in Tibet and Xinjiang. But of course there are marked differences.

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