As someone from this part of the world I feel like I am inclined to breakdown this hilarious article.
Promoting these communities as a vehicle for China’s geopolitical ambitions has become something of a mantra in Beijing, often wrapped in bland rhetoric like building a “shared future.” But in seeking to incorporate citizens of other countries into its vision, critics say, Beijing is stoking divided loyalties, and their potentially destabilizing consequences, across Southeast Asia — home to more than 80 percent of the ethnic-Chinese people outside China and Taiwan, researchers say.
This is often said but China is acting very restrictedly, dare I say completely non-antagonistic compared to the West if we look at history.
Compare how foreign European settlers were utilized by European geopolitical goals in Southern Africa. Nothing remotely close ever happened in Southeast Asia, in which, like the article itself mentions, is where an overwhelmingly majority of the Chinese diaspora lives.
“If too many Chinese Singaporeans are foolish enough to subscribe to Xi’s version of the ‘China Dream,’ the multiracial social cohesion that is the foundation of Singapore’s success will be destroyed,” said Bilahari Kausikan, a former permanent secretary of Singapore’s Foreign Ministry. “Once destroyed, it cannot be put together again.”
I don’t think someone who authored a book called “China is Messing with Your Mind” is a neutral actor, but sure.
according to an examination of more than 700 Lianhe Zaobao articles through 2022 and early 2023 by The Washington Post and the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.
lol.
Additionally, the paper has been running regular opinion columns since 2016 from at least two CCP officials without noting their party affiliation, referring to them simply as China affairs commentators.
Super based. There’s too many anglophone Western worshippers in this damn region (anything more than 0 is too much).
(I am different, I am an anglophone who hates the West
)Beijing sees Southeast Asia as a key sphere of influence, and it has been increasing its public diplomacy and media presence there as part of a multibillion-dollar campaign under Xi, with ethnic-Chinese communities a significant target, according to researchers.
Yes because we are neighbours with a population of almost 700million - same as the Latin American population and how the Yankees treat them as their backyard (to kill everyone they disagree with).
It’s only you white-washed Western worhsippers who believe in Eurocentric understandings of International politics, including the “rational” nation-state, liberal democracy and the “end of history”. It is not a “sphere of influence”, it is a logical conclusion of Southeast Asia’s millenia long interactions with China. India should also try to learn from it’s roots and engage in peaceful diplomacy - but we all know why they can’t.
Chinese state television in both Chinese and English is ubiquitous in Southeast Asia, as is China Radio International, which broadcasts in most Southeast Asian languages as well as Chinese. Beijing is also promoting its official news agency, Xinhua, to media organizations in the region, creating content-sharing agreements. Chinese companies or businesspeople with strong commercial interests in China have bought up local Chinese-language newspapers in Malaysia.
American state television is also ubiquitous in Southeast Asia - what is their point?
Should I even mention the utterly cursed Filipino News Ecosystem?
Apart from these direct efforts, the sheer weight of China’s economic power has become an incentive to heed Beijing’s wishes, undermining traditional constraints in Singapore on taking sides.
The West would never do what China does!
The paper is one of three main vernacular newspapers in Singapore, each serving a predominant ethnic group — Chinese, Malay or Indian. The majority of Singapore’s 5.4 million people are bilingual, proficient in English and one other language: Mandarin, Malay or Tamil.
To the dismay of European colonizers who destroyed their own linguistic diversity for “nation building”.
Zaobao also partners with a Chinese company that has been pinpointed as complicit in rights abuses. In late 2022, Zaobao started working on digitization efforts with an artificial intelligence firm called SenseTime, which has been placed under sanction by the U.S. government for the use of facial recognition technology against the Uyghur ethnic minority.
lol.
Propagating a pro-China line that “doesn’t distinguish between the Chinese Communist Party state, Chinese culture, Chinese ethnicity” creates “confusion over self-identification and where loyalties should lie, especially at a time where friction between the PRC, the U.S. and other U.S. friends and allies in the region are increasing,” said Chong, of the National University of Singapore.
It can only be miscontrued as “pro-China” if you fall into the West’s centuries long struggle against us practicing our own cultures and perspectives.
Only in the West and anglo-brained liberals think that we can’t celebrate diversity and be proud of our cultural heritage. As we all know here, the large aspect of the Amerikan cultural appartus is assimilating those who are different, so even if people are phenotypically different, they are all part of the same individualistic devil spawn (Amerika) and can’t even talk positively about their culture without self-hatred.
Friendship “associations are designed to build emotional links to China on the one hand, and allow the United Front department to use those emotional and other connections as levers to serve the goals of the Communist Party, whether economic, political or social.”
Elderly Chinese, who were Mandarin-educated and feel as if they’ve lost their place in a Singapore that is largely Anglophone, are the most easily swayed by Beijing’s messaging, analysts and residents said. One person who describes her parents, in their 70s and 80s, as having “extreme” pro-China views said the CCP has become like a “fictional hero.”
Based.
Overall, I say 2/10 for effort. For the West to act like they celebrate cultural diversity, they seem really intent at perptuating myths of “divided loyalties” that got many (working class and Communist) Chinese people killed in 20th century Southeast Asia.
Maybe they do not actually care? Just a thought.
I couldn’t get through the whole thing, but this part made me lol.
More recently, the paper deferred to Beijing’s narrative on topics including last year’s “blank paper” protests against covid-19 lockdowns and CCP rule, as well as in coverage of the Chinese surveillance balloon shot down by the United States in February, in which stories routinely implied that the American reaction was irrational and a symptom of decline.
The “Chinese surveillance balloon” was nothing more than a hobbyist weather balloon, but let’s just skip over that because it doesn’t fit the narrative being presented here.
They say this as if the entire balloon news cycle wasn’t “deferring to Washington’s narrative.”
It wasn’t a hobbyist balloon to my knowledge. It was an expensive professional one. Unless the hobbyist was a millionaire it was likely launched by a University or their national weather service and they’d likely counted on recovering and re-using it but it was blown off course, this happens to US research balloons too from time to time so they’re buying new ones semi-regularly… They did later shoot down a hobbyist balloon sent up by an American group but that was a later incident.
Perhaps I got the stories mixed up. In any case, we know it wasn’t a “spy” balloon so continuing to refer to it as such is disingenuous and reveals that the author’s arguments are not being made in good faith.
At least one of the other balloons shot down was the hobbyst.
For some reason like four balloons were shot down by the US that week. The first was from China, but it did not collect data.
I imagine Taiwan isn’t as open to the idea of becoming Ukraine 2 as the Pentagon is hoping so now they’re looking for alternatives.
I mean if people living there have any brains I imagine they’re not looking at what happened to Ukraine and going yeah we’d like some of that here too.
The regular civilians and even active troops themselves are not keen on the prospects of fighting, but the deep green (pro DPP) media keeps pushing the “it will be easy to win with our US troops” narrative. One of their genius experts even said something on the lines of “our missiles probably have a 70% chance to intercept one from the mainland, so if we fire three then it will be 210% success”.
The DPP has only been good at a few things, namely selling out the interests of the people to western capital and building their own wealth through corruption while changing the compulsory education system to eradicate any historical ties between the province and the dreaded C word. This has poisoned the minds of many youth into believing that they are somehow higher grade humans than the mainlanders after being graced by western and Japanese dominance (similar to many youths in HK).
US propaganda machine is well oiled for sure, and we’ve already seen how well brainwashing worked in Ukraine. Hopefully, once that project collapses it’s going to be a bit of a wake up call. I did see that KMT is polling well, do you think it’s likely that DPP gets kicked out and negotiations from 2014 restart?
It’s quite possible but the KMT are nicknamed 百年烂党 (roughly translated to crappy centennial party) for a reason lol. They do at least recognize the shared history and lineage with the mainland but certain groups within them have went for a “two China” or a “Chinese commonwealth” solution in the past (which would be rejected as it breaks the one China policy).
They will ease tensions to a degree and seek to resume some trade with the mainland, but anything substantial will be dragged through the mud by the DPP (they do their best snake oil sales routine as the opposition party lol). While the DPP rabidly scream for independence and elements of the KMT continuing their own under the table independence, neither have dared to breach their own constitution by declaring it or even taking it to the polls lol.
That does sound like a mess, seems like there’s lots of opportunists all pulling things in different directions. Much the way politics in the west go as well.
Plenty of anti-US sentiments in Taiwan already, same with Japan, much more than even a decade ago. Only a matter of time before a critical mass of people realize that the West does not have their interests in mind.
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Every US accusation is an admission. Tale as old as… well not time, just George Washington.
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I wouldn’t say losing its mind. Definitely some click bait title there on your end. It just goes into how the Chinese ethnic population in Singapore, which is a city state in Malaysia, are aligning more with the Chinese Communist party. An example is not believing in human rights abuse against the Uyghurs in China. This divergence will lead to unrest ultimately, and will impact the successes of the city state. I debated even posting but most people won’t read the article and just go based on your title, which is inflammatory.
An example is not believing in human rights abuse against the Uyghurs in China.
Jesus. How is any grown adult still believing in this ridiculous claptrap?
Am I out of the loop? I’ve definitely not kept up with the situation but I thought there was human abuse stuff happening with the Uyghurs in China?
You were in the wrong loop. It was a hoax. Fake news, propaganda, whatever you want to call it.
After the US tried to radicalise Uyghurs in Xingjiang, the Chinese government responded not with bullets or bombs like the US wanted, but with an education programme that has now ended. Everyone is prospering in Xinjiang. Multiple independent visits have taken place and nothing was ever found. The only witnesses all turned out to be CIA. Like this funny example.
Get better loops. You should start trusting the media waaay less, especially about geopolitics.
Whoa I definitely was out of the loop. Thanks for actually discussing with me and sharing some insight. You’re the only so far!
Sorry about that, we get a lot of people coming in here and acting in bad faith, not actually interesting in learning, but just telling us we are all evil bad guys for disagreeing with them. Xinjiang is usually a focal point of that, as that is the loudest (though far from the most well sourced) anti-China narrative right now. So we can be a bit aggressive when someone asks questions that sound very similar to someone just here to be annoying and obnoxious.
Thanks for not just dismissing everyone outright because some people were being rude!
No worries, I understand! People can be defensive. I just honestly don’t know that much, and appreciate a dialog.
Then you’re welcome here! It might be a good idea to add a little statement like (I’m not trying to upset anyone, I honestly don’t know and would like more information.) to comments prevent this sort of thing happening in the future.
With the influx of people to Lemmy instances from Reddit, existing members will tend to be a bit defensive when state department lines get regurgitated (even when the same start department has walked back on some of its claims). Even moreso when many of these new users come in to wreck, hurl insults and then leave lol.
Here’s a few more summaries with linked sources if you’re interested. The most recent extremist attacks were in 2014 where dozens of innocents were murdered. While they could be found with a quick search, they barely have any views as it undermines the whole narrative.
https://lemmygrad.ml/post/1028893
Some of the reasons why the US intelligence agencies have so much interest in turning the region into an extremist hotbed are:
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Looking on the map, the region is a critical part of the OBOR, which the “sea based powers” in the West want to destroy for their own business interests
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Similar to Afghanistan (which is geographically close to both Russia and PRC), it would create an endless supply of extremists to create futher ethnic violence and destabilisation within the whole mainland
That’s crazy, ya all I know is what is broadcasted to me. The US does have a history of causing unrest in other countries for sure. I’m a new user as well but I won’t walk away from a discussion. That’s why I’m here, for a dialog with people, not just endless scrolling.
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No problem, I find most people get very angry with me if you tell them this genocide never happened. It’s a bit strange.
I can hardly believe that only 3 years ago enough redditors were able to see through the Xinjiang shit that most of the comments were ripping into Rushan Abbas. Did the feds really shape the narrative that fast?
I think what happened was that feds felt too powerful after the reception of their propaganda wave and in a foolhardy step thought that having a literal CIA employee doing public facing AMAs would not fire back.
They should have stuck to pseudo-academic reports by Zenz, UN reports with unverified and unnamed interviewees, armchair analysis of satellite images and so on where there is plausible deniability. But they got ahead of themselves.
“human abuse stuff” you sure sound like you know what you’re talking about
Thanks for clearing that up. Super helpful.
I was hoping you would elaborate on wtf that means exactly, and what your source is
Source: news places /s
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the C2P abused those Uyghurs so much that their population grew
gENoCiDe
(2C)P*
The source is the article you posted lol Edit: not you, what OP posted. Shows you didn’t even read the article.
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HANGMAN’S GAMBIT
I --de i- t-e f–k -p
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If you can find a source for your claim that does not reference:
Adrian Zenz The CIA. Radio Free Asia. Rushan Abbas.you failed the challenge, time for your punishment!!
CBT is back on the menu boys
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The quote is about a claim you made beyond the scope of the article lol. Shows you didn’t even read the comment.
An example is not believing in human rights abuse against the Uyghurs in China.
- How would you characterize the Iraq War, which the U.S. started on a totally fabricated premise, and during which the U.S. indiscriminately killed (by low estimates) hundreds of thousands of civilians? If you don’t think that’s at least as bad as whatever you believe is happening in Xinjiang, you’re working from a heavy bias.
- Why would I trust a country that’s just spent the last few decades killing Muslims all over the globe to suddenly give a shit about Muslims in China? Why would I trust them over all the Muslim-majority countries who are fine with (or even support) China’s policies in Xinjiang?
I mean, yeah you’re totally right. However, it is definitely off topic. I know I’m being down voted to oblivion. I did make the correlation of human rights violations to the Uyghurs, whom were not specifically listed. The article left it at just violations. Either way, it’s a very semantic argument. I was just pointing out that a large news publisher wasn’t “freaking out” and rather just reporting some drama happening on the other side of the globe. I did get lots of replies on an otherwise empty comment section, so at least there’s engagement. Which is why I’m here.
How is pointing out bias and the absurdity of trusting the U.S. over Muslim-majority countries off topic in a thread about anti-China dogma in the U.S.?
It just goes into how the Chinese ethnic population in Singapore, which is a city state in Malaysia, are aligning more with the Chinese Communist party.
Malaysia has and will continue to be more Pro-China than Singapore ever will be you dumbass.
You don’t even know what you are talking about LMAO.
In the arena of SEA politics, the most Western friendly countries are: Phillipines (neocolonial comprador puppet state of the US), Singapore (glorified tax haven for which International Capital uses as a node for value transfer, and to better control the geopolitically important Strait of Malacca) and Papua New Guinea (neocolonized by Australian companies).
Singapore isn’t a “city-state” in Malaysia, it was booted out of Malaysia to fulfill the comprador Malay feudal classes interests here in Malaysia, that the British acquiesed because containing Communism was more important.
This division can still be seen as a modern-day example of a colonial scar, remaining unresolved because of past and present Western influence.
But surely and steadily this will be removed and our countries will be reunited. That is the logical conclusion of indigenous economic integration, as history has shown.
Singapore isn’t a “city-state” in Malaysia, it was booted out of Malaysia to fulfill the comprador Malay feudal classes interests here in Malaysia,
I know nothing about this subject. Is it sort of like what happened with Hong Kong and/or Macau?
Somewhat.
I think the key point you need to know is that most of the political parties in Singapore, and all the left-wing ones in Malaysia before independence and even after, wanted a unified country, and many in Malaysia even sought for a “Pan-Indonesianism” which would fit into the historical cultural realm of the Malay archipelago (the spoken lingua franca of the entire region prior to European influence).
Thank you!
wanted
If reunification has become less popular, is there a general cause of this that wouldn’t require you writing out a treatise for the sake of an offhand question?
I tried to keep it short and I began to write an entire monograph lmao.
TLDR: It just isn’t as materially important.
People can easily travel between the two states, there’s iirc hundreds of thousands that pass through the immigration bridge weekly.
Families are not separated and both states maintain cordial relations.
Personally I would obviously like to see it happening, but when it isn’t necessary, you get limited by political bureaucracy than anything else.
Makes perfect sense, thank you. I would have had no problem with an explanation of any length (and the forum might be interested in you making a post on this topic at some point) but I respect your time and patience.
Yup - I also did a quick double check with the stats, its more like hundreds of thousands (400k) per day.
Apparently it is literally the busiest or one of the busiest land borders on Earth.
and the forum might be interested in you making a post on this topic at some point
I have a lot of ideas on this topic regarding Southeast Asian history in general - but I always seemingly want to cover a certain book before I start it, and never get round to actually drafting/creating a post.
Post Independence from Britain Singapore wanted to federate with Malaysia but Malaysia kicked them out because they didn’t want a city full of Chinese and also because they were afraid of Lee Kuan Yew.
Well you seem very well informed, can you explain to me the difference between a city state, and a nation? Is it size? Is it governmental structure? Is it historical?
Honestly I didn’t care much about your use of the term “city-state”, I don’t know why I put it in quotes in the first place.
My main contention was you called it “in” Malaysia, when the whole point was Singapore was excluded from Malaysia purposefully. I apologise for my brash response - I was really annoyed at that, especially after reading the original article shared here.
However I can say that nation and state are not synonymous. Nation-state is specifically a European concept in which was then retroactively applied to non-European cultures. It still has it’s uses especially in International Relations but we must be cognizant of the fact that what it entails isn’t universal.
Nation is more ambiguous and more culturally specific, it could be on the basis of a shared linguistic, economic, religious, cultural, or ideological history. It could be all at once or just one.
In the context of Southeast Asia, what it means to be part of the same nation is typically evoked to be those who practice the similar cultural norms, had similar shared histories, spoken certain dialects and languages. So it may be more useful to think nation as “ethnicity” but even then I wouldn’t say is entirely accurate. I will have to say that this understanding doesn’t include any sort of “blood quantum” rules or anything to do with biological lineage. That was and will always be a specifically Euro-Amerikan tradition.
Many countries are not nation-states, which would include countries like Bolivia, Indonesia, Laos, Viet Nam, China, India and South Africa. Studying them would be a good choice in understanding the nuances of nation, state and nation-state. Concepts like Plurinational State and Civilizational State is of key importance.
Even technically the United Kingdom is not a nation-state, although that is contested.
They key thing that binds them all is that a multitude of different cultures and ethnicities are practiced within the same territory and doesn’t rely on a dominant identity (race, ethnic group, religion) for “nation-building”.
Others in this site may be able to provide a better response than I.
No that was a great response, thank you. So basically they are different countries. Is the popular thought for them to rejoin? Sorry if I’m assuming you know. Honestly SEA is my weakest point for understanding cultural norms.
Yup they are seperate entities/states.
Is the popular thought for them to rejoin?
I would say it fits into the overal popular imagination of the “shared cultural realm” or nation I talked about but in terms of politically, as in a political union of some kind, I would say that it is not feasible or expected in the short and medium term.
The steps are being laid down though, through ASEAN and infrastructural initiatives. Economically, and culturally we are very much intertwined.
And Singapore and Malaysia are really new states, less than 75 years old, so things may change quickly.
Also, Brunei could be absorbed into Malaysia if the Sultan ever decides to in the future as that’s also part of both countries’ constitution.
