Yeah, Ukraine was part of Russia for like 200 years, and had the same culture of embezzlement and graft. It takes a long time to unlearn that, but they’ve been working hard at it (as evidenced by this anti-corruption agency)

All governments are murderes and rapists, so unless you’re advocating for worldwide anarchy this is just whataboutism.

You’re broadly correct, with the important caveat that when the KMT fled to Taiwan, they didn’t relinquish their claim on the mainland. The KMT said “we’re the real government, the CCP is a usurper” and the CCP said “we won the war on the mainland, therefore Taiwan automatically belongs to us because… reasons”

This is futher complicated by the fact that when Japan relinquished Taiwan after WWII it was technically ceded to the RoC.

In any case, the government of Taiwan is technically the oldest of the two extant “Chinese” governments, so it makes no sense for the CCP to say that Taiwan needs to rejoin it.

“Return to China” doesn’t even make sense from a historical standpoint. Xi must have studied under the same history professor as Putin.

Given the horrible legacy of Japan in Taiwan, the fact that Taiwanese prefer to align with today’s Japan than China illustrates just how much they don’t want to be governed by the CCP.

Goes to show how impossible it is to get an Italian to stop talking.

Classic. The Monroe Doctrine exists to ensure only the US can meddle in the Americas.

Inflation is arguably down mostly because of austerity measures which have not addressed any fundamental problems, only kicked them down the road.

Except, if we were to read the article, things are materially worse than when he took office:

Milei had predicted a V-like recovery with the creation of new jobs in a more prosperous and stable economy. Instead, the economy stalled out, declining in the second quarter compared with the previous three months. Unemployment is at 7.6%, up from 5.7% when Milei took office. And Argentina has about 200,000 fewer jobs since he took office, government data shows.

Eh, she’ll probably just be Abe 2.0, but without the exhortations for people to fuck more.

No, I excluded India because they only intermittently had great power status. Iran was one for 2000 years and China for… 3000 or so? India was too at times but not in a consistent fashion - it wasn’t even really unified for at least half that time.

Tagging @BeefandSquints@lemmy.dbzer0.com as well as this is in reply to them.

Iran is a country with remarkably smart people.

It always has been. Look at the Islamic golden age for example - so many of the great artists and polymaths were Persian. They have such an incredibly rich culture with a VERY long history, easily up there with China who I’d say is their only real competition in that regard.

Yeah, but it’s always other people getting thrown in the meat grinder, it would never be me!

Why stop there? Ctesiphon or bust.

We all know it’s the rightful territory of the Senatus Populusque Romanus. It’s just a matter of time.

We technically already have him, but not really.

I guess it might be the greatest public showing so far by a NATO Country(?)

By far, although to be fair, most of the rest of us don’t have a royal family.

Oh and I somehow failed to mention Evergrande! This is a far better example than any of my anecdotal data: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_property_sector_crisis_(2020–present)

It’s hard even for people in China to discuss this amongst themselves, so that’s understandable. I do recommend visiting though - it’s still a beautiful country, and the people are far friendlier and more welcoming than I had expected (I thought they’d be very reserved)

Yes, I have, although my experience is mostly limited to Beijing with a bit of time spent elsewhere. Housing is at least as expensive (relative to wages) as it is in a typical western city, despite there being graveyards of unfinished apartment blocks everywhere just outside the 5th ring road. This isn’t getting into the brutal working hours and mediocre wages, lack of free healthcare, etc etc. It isn’t really any better than the US (not that the US are good, they’re just bad in somewhat different ways)