I worry about AMLO, maybe the US really will invade Mexico.
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- Thread starter bd popeye
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I worry about AMLO, maybe the US really will invade Mexico.
Don't speak for me when you even got the interpretation wrong.
I said one needs Hard power before they can make their soft power successful.
Show me one country which has great soft power and less hard power?
Soft power can be easily take away with bad press and social media unless one controls the media. Even then the US and the west are having lots of trouble supporting Israels war and lost soft power in the global south. But hard power can't be taken away that's easily.
Weren't you the one who was harping on how Israel can do whatever they like with US support because "that's power"? And no one is able to sanction them at all? That sounds like a great plug for hard power. Pretty hypocritical of you to then make your statement about soft power.
Both Austronesian (philipino) and Austroasiatic people (Vietnamese) are from Southern China some 5000 or 6000 thousands years ago before China became China. For example, according to DNA analysis conducted in 2000s, Austronesian settlement was found in Fujian around 6000 years BP then spread out to Taiwan then the rest of SE Asia archipelago. If interested search for the name "Fu Qiaomei/付巧妹". Regarding Austroasiatic, it is well known in acient Chinese legend that they started somewhere in central south China as Baiyue/百越, then by the push of people from central plain, some of them migrated southwestwards into Vietnam and rest of continental SE Asia, the remaining people either merged into Han Chinese or remained as Miao(苗) and other minority.
So, it is wellknown that lots of southern Chinese (Han) share DNA types with SE Asians to various degrees. It is same in the north that Han Chinese shares lot of DNA with Turk, Mongol, Manchu and Koreans. Some times it is not even sharing DNA by natural inter-marriage but straight artificial designation like Yuan dynasty putting all Jurchen (Manchu) and Khitan (Mongolic) south of great wall into Han Chinese catagory. The same thing happened en mass in early 1900s when many Manchus registered as Han Chinese in fear of persecution after the collapse of Qing dynasty. In the south, many minorities during Qing dynasty after adopting Han Chinese names and settled as farmars were registered as Han Chinese after 改土归流.
The point is that even the identity of Han Chinese itself is not really a homogenious genetic thing but a mix of many genetic lineages over thousands years. So there is no "typical" Chinese (Han). Han is essetially equal to the whole East Asian population, pretty much like if Caucasian being treated as an "ethnic group".
The answer to your question is that people in Vietnam and Philipine especially those with known ancestral link to China are almost impossible to tell apart from Chinese by looks.
Your comments seem to suggest you confuse 'soft power' with 'coercion'. 'Soft power' is voluntary and people embrace for their own sake. Before 1945, Japanese forced Koreans to have Japanese names. Any today? That was coercion. Today, Korean national id cards still prints the Chinese characters of the person's name and the art of calligraphy is still celebrated. That is soft power. People try new things because they MAY like it and nobody wants things forced upon them. Think Jazz, Coca-Cola, sushi, pizza, and chopsticks. A lot of Chinese soft power are so ingrained that who cares about their origins like all things in gambling (dice, play cards, dominoes, etc) and acrobatics. On the other extreme, Germans (also Mongols) had two centuries of super-hard power but how much Germanic/Mongolian soft legacies have they left to the world other than deaths and destructions? The French (and Italians) lost practically every war but they still wield tremendous immense soft power. How much American soft power will still be there 200 years from now? Not even Hollywood movies. Maybe just Jazz and hamburger.
You also seem to equate 'hard power' with being a macho bully. That is a very insecure, superficial, and disturbing view. True 'hard power' is the perception of Confidence/Self-assuredness that engenders Respect and Curiosity and persuades other people to want to try and mimic . Any weakling with a loaded AK-47 can delude himself into thinking he is all powerful but he only commands fear. If you are not in harm's way, do you agree with him or do you sneer? Using current events as examples are also nonsensical as we won't know the long term repercussions for decades to come.
It is true no matter how good something is, if nobody knows about it, it is not useful. Money and influence help to spread the goodness and a prosperous country has more chance to succeed than a poor one. Threat of violence never works. Chinese know that well from history. The greatest 'soft power' era in Chinese history was the Southern Song Dynasty with very feeble hard power and China's soft power conquered both the Mongolians and Manchurians. Confucius Institute was a good attempt at spreading soft power but given the competition, doomed to fail until Western nations recognize resistance is futile. Maybe 30 years from now?
Perhaps the best and final example is America/the Washintgton concensus today with its 'Freedom and Democracy' rhetoric. Has it been successful?
Hard power is 'Transactional'. By that, it simply means whatever was imposed will vanish and be forgotten like a Stalin, Hitler, or Mao. The transactional period can be decades but when it is over, it is gone. Soft power can linger for centuries or even millenia like Jesus Christ or Confucius.
I think that might not be true even though what you said is all correct. Pinoys (even with known ancestral links are noticeably shorter on average than Mainland Chinese), if you visit there you will know. Bong Bong Marcos is a good example of this actually, perhaps the diet there doesn't help with height?
manqiangrexue
Brigadier
I cannot imagine what gave you that idea. Coercion is clearly hard power.
Exactly. People only do voluntary things when it is in their interest, and interest is created by hard power.
And yet, Koreans are antagonistic to China, working on the same side as Japan and the US. Why? American hard power willed it to be so.
If nobody cares about their origins, then they are not even truly associated with China as far as soft power is concerned.
Hard power collapse led to their downfall. Germany actually has more soft power than China because they kneel to the US and the US gave it to them.
Because the US allowed them to have it. What's the similarity? Kneel before the dominant hard power and you will be allowed to have soft power.
Useless conjecture.
It's more disturbing that you think this despite what I wrote. Technology, manufacturing, economics, infrastructure, are all hard power. It's just that America is the macho bully so that is what a very visible branch of American hard power looks like.
No, true hard power is not any perception or curiosity piquing; the definition comes from nowhere. Hard power is the economic, political and miliary means to shape events to your will. This is not a person with a gun; this is international events with 24/7 coverage. People want to be on the winning side, which is the side with hard power. Then, they will tell everyone that their ideals align with the winning side, so they feel like they're on the winning side too. And then all the people will cheer this view and herald the side of the hard power hegemon that they join. That is how hard power leads to "soft power,"
Current events shape the world now. What do you want to use, examples that happened thousands of years in a vastly different world?
Money is hard economic power.
First of all, the theat of violence is much much rarer than the threat of sanctions, which is nonviolent hard power. Secondly, violence has been historically the most successful alliance former. All ancient empires were built on the threat of violence and the offer of reward to those who submitted. These empires only fell apart when their hard power declined. Today, the most outstanding example of violence forming an alliance is the one between the US and Japan.
All dynasties collapse from lack of hard power, never "soft power."
Thus showing how soft power depends entirely on hard power and cannot stand in hostile situations where they are needed the most.
Elaborate what you mean. I don't understand what you are saying.
Uh no. No matter how many times you say it, it is not. Hard power is an endless buffet of the hegemon giving order to its followers, as long as its hard power domination is in place.
None of those 3 people are forgotten. Mao is the biggest hero of China and remains so for the foreseeable future. Stalin is revered in Russia, and Hitler lost due to lack of hard power.
Yeah, that period is determined by hard power, which is why it's the only thing that matters.
It's not soft power at all when Koreans write your calligraphy and give you the finger and do the bidding of their American daddy. Having the remnants of your once powerful society by strewn about without consequence does nothing for anyone. China's going to the top of the world; what the F do we care if Japanese use chopsticks and Koreans write Chinese words??!! They're all obstacles just the same as if they used forks and named themselves "Bob."
Because the Chinese are too kind. All Korean ignorance and arrogance need to be deleted.
Counterexample: Isrl.
Nobody watches their TV or movies.
Nobody listens to their music.
Nobody plays their video games.
Nobody dresses how they do.
Nobody learns their language outside family reasons.
Nobody else follows their religion.
99% of people can't name a single product made there under their own brands.
Their diplomacy must be the least convincing in the world. They have only 2 modes: warmonger (I can give plenty of examples) or crying racism.
This has alienated even neutrals like South Korea and Japan who have 0 interest in the Middle East.
Yet they're getting away with everything.
Why is that even verbal condemnations of their actions are so hard to muster up?
Once again, you are not asking these questions in good faith. China is currently engaged in a Cold War with the West. What other country in the history of our species was able to exert its soft power in adversarial nations? Even the USA, which is the country with the most soft power, has failed to exert its soft power in China. Anti-American sentiment is at an all-time high in China and interest in American television, movies, and music has plummeted to an all-time low. American movies used to regularly make $100 million or more in China, but now most of them struggle to hit $20 million.
I wouldn't say that China is a dominant power yet. China technically isn't even a developed country yet. I would say that its soft power is decent for its income level. TikTok is the most popular app in the world and many young women, even in the West, are interested in "Douyin beauty" and "Xiaohongshu makeup" these days. Chinese dramas are also popular in Southeast Asia. 10 years ago, none of this was true. Just because China doesn't dominate the entertainment industry doesn't mean that its soft power hasn't improved.