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You want to pretend like China has a stellar international affairs record? How do you feel about the Chinese treatment of Hong Kong and Taiwan?

I don't see how any of this is relevant anyway. What China is doing today with IP is bad. The opium wars have nothing to do with that.



Hong Kong and Taiwan could be argued as internal affairs, honestly. No matter how much it would pain me that 2 developed and thriving democracies (maybe Macau, too, if you squint really hard at it) are very exposed to nasty regime abuses. "Cuius regio, eius religio" isn't a Chinese saying, it's a Latin one from the Western world. Can't have it both ways.

If you want to go into more unequivocally international affairs abuses, use examples more like the Spratly Islands or the Chinese fishing fleets in international waters.

And regarding IP, I'm kind of torn. China is genuinely developing and innovating and making amazing products for the rest of the world. The UK, the US did the same at the start, also through blatant disregard for IP. Maybe this kind of competition is ok. After all, "If we each trade one apples, at the end we each have one apple. If we each trade one idea, at the end we each have two ideas".




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