China is a shithole? You should go there just you can have a first hand experience at describing it so you have more credibility.
I remember people speaking so highly on Korean soft power but from what I see it has already peaked. Its no longer the new "hip" thing. BTS guys now have to serve in the army so their biggest wow factor is gone.
this second time posted with over 900 replies without any thought about direction of Saudi kingdom. did any one mentioned New Europe?. I think this is related to Ukraine conference failure and Saudis are way excited about Putin North Korea visit. it felt like they were part of that visit.
Well, to be fair, the things that he himself does are a much better indicator of his personality and it's very plausible that he made these friends at a stage of his life when he was too young for politics. I do not question his patriotism. That said, I do think that @Overseaschinese could benefit from a stronger and more dominant persona and presense. His friends strongly disagree with him on something that is a core conviction and his solution is to gently persuade, then agree to disagree. However, when it comes to core convictions, I cannot overlook such a disagreement for anything. I will engage them, force them by the edge of logic and reason's blade onto my side; have them at least say that they need to reconsider their values, or there will be a split between us and we won't be friends anymore. I never shy from this conversation; once I had a professor from Hong Kong casually tell me she believed that Taiwan should be independent and I chewed her out on the issue until she said, "OK, maybe you're right about some things. I have to think about this more." I didn't care about the power dynamic, if she would give me a bad grade or treat me unfairly; nothing is above my conviction. Don't let the people around you define you; you define them, and if they're just an unsavable rotten apple, you eject them from the privilege of being your friend.
When you say "convince" they hear "beg." They think you're some CCP agent whose job is to beg people to visit the country and show them fake things to improve their view. Some people are convinced by reason and driven by reward; others are simply not. Hanjian are driven by fear; they just want to know which power is the strongest so they can kneel by it. To these people, China needs no words and no smiles, we just need to show our power and to let them see their master being defeated by us. That is the only key to this lock.
Based on my experience, i think it is appropriate to draw a distinction between continental europeans and their worldview and the anglo-centric atlanticist worldview. Unfortunately due to anglo american control of media, too many of the youth of continental europeans end up anglocentric and with it, the fears and prejudices of the anglo american hegemon. Why for eg would lithuania of all states choose to pick a fight with China, or why would backwater Sweden or Netherlands decide to pick a fight with China? It makes no sense, strategically, culturally or philosophically unless lithuanina, swedish and dutch elites identify more with anglo americans than their ancestors.
