"China is not socialist. It is an authoritarian right-wing Han supremacist project"
"China is not socialist. It is an authoritarian right-wing Han supremacist project"
Xi Jinping is also a dictator.
I was gaming with friends on Discord when the topic of China passingly came up and one guy started going off about how China and Russia are both socially backward authoritarian dictatorships and how China is communist in name only, oppresses its minority groups and no true socialist should support them.
spoiler
Anyway, they're also pro-NATO
What these dorks don't understand is that "Han" is basically a floating signifier; it's more akin to a term like "European" or "westerner" than it is a specific ethnic group like Sicilian is.
The Han ethnicity is a melting pot or umbrella term for a really wide array of (sub)ethnicities that exist within it because ethnic groups were either dominant at the time and became part of the group or they were subsumed into it over the course of millennia.
I think this whole thing is just westerners universalising their own local experience and projecting it onto China - they aren't eradicating poverty they're just cooking the books, they don't trust their government because all (my) government is untrustworthy, they can't be making immense strides in infrastructure because ours is crumbling so everything they build must also be tofu dreg construction etc.
I'm not saying that there's no ethnic prejudice that exists in China - I'd be utterly floored if there wasn't any. But to make a tall claim like China being ethnosupremacist requires a lot of evidence and I'm not convinced that most Han people even identify closely with that label rather than their region or their particular subgroup so I think it's a real stretch.
"Han" is also extremely difficult to draw a clear boundary around to gatekeep since there's so much linguistic, cultural, and physical diversity within that group.
There's at least two major dialects and literally countless local dialects, variations on style of dress, food, customs, festivals, even ways of playing common games like majong that makes it extremely difficult to separate out a "Han" identity from a "Chinese" identity. Physically, I have Han friends who are darker in complextion than my Vietnamese friends, some taller than most Euros, etc etc.
The point is that anyone who speaks a Chinese language and understands Chinese culture could very easily self-identify as Han and literally nobody could say otherwise.
Conversely, within the PRC it's actually non-Han minority status that is gatekept because of the generous subsidies and additional rights (preferential university entry, exemption from family planning policies, etc) which are given to minorities.
The One Child Policy is especially illustrative of this point - minorities were completely exempted from this Policy whereas the majority Han group was governed by it. What kind of Ethnofascist suppresses births in the group they supposedly think is superior?
Conversely, within the PRC it's actually non-Han minority status that is gatekept because of the generous subsidies and additional rights (preferential university entry, exemption from family planning policies, etc) which are given to minorities.
I've got a friend who'd like 3/4 Han but legally Zhuang because his parents and grandparents realised it'd be beneficial to keep the minority identity. It's a pretty goofy system.
"Han" is also extremely difficult to draw a clear boundary around to gatekeep since there's so much linguistic, cultural, and physical diversity within that group.
The issue with this is that libs will say "Han" is analogous to "White" in that there's tonnes of ethnicities within "White" but that doesn't stop someone being a white supremacist. It's an argument I have seen from the libs that are less stupid but still buried waist deep in the anti china propaganda.
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Yup. In all my years working/living/visiting the only context the word ever comes up is when discussing historical facts. In general most chinese follow the rule of three, meaning you are considered to be wherever the 3rd generation, ie your grandparents, are from. So it doesn't matter that I was born in Amerikkka and have lived here most of my life, since my grandparents were from Shandong that's what most Chinese people will tend to identify me as past introductions.
To go off on the point about projection a thing I've personally noted living in both countries is that when it comes to the issues of racism the entrenched nature of it in the western social consciousness and political establishment makes it a much different beast. Like there's no political party in china that has a platform based on the disenfranchisement of a minority group and goes around advertising the fact that the first thing they'll do when in power is to bus them out of the country. As such while there are undoubtedly racist individuals within China, I can think of one particular family member of mine who may hold such opinions, there is no concentration of said racism or a purposeful consolidation of that sort of sentiment towards larger more dangerous actions like here in the west. Considering the fact that most western countries were and to some lesser extent still are ethnostates when it comes to who holds actual power in governance, its not surprise they tend to project that thought onto China.
Yeah. In my experience in east Asia racism is generally much more socially-acceptable in the sense of terms that are used and what's publicly acceptable to express as an opinion.
Meanwhile I live in what is undeniably one of the most racist countries in the world - not quite on the same level as Israel or South Africa but really uncomfortably fucking close (y'know how there are jokes about talking racism with a person from western Europe and it all being fine up until you mention Romani people? That's what people are like in this country, except for pretty much every race or nation - they'll agree that racism is detestable, just as long as you don't ask them to talk in any kind of detail about west Asia, south Asia, east Asia, central Europe, eastern Europe, Africa, south America...) it's really frowned upon (mostly) to be openly racist here but as long as you're somewhat quiet about it or you frame it in the right terms it's totally fine.
Here we prefer our genocidal ethnosupremacist state to be nice and prim and proper - politeness is the most important factor to us because we need to conceal our virulent white supremacism even from ourselves. Policy though, especially foreign policy, that can be whatever it likes and concerns about human rights and international law be damned.
I think that's the biggest difference in my eyes - I'll get called a gweilo in Hong Kong or I'll have a Japanese person tell me that I eat noodles like a Korean dog. But that ain't worth shit compared to the atrocities that my native country has wrought upon the world in its enduring legacy of white supremacism. (Gonna make a conceptual distinction between Imperial Japan and modern Japan here for argument's sake, although I'm standing on shaky ground doing so, but you get the picture.)
I dunno i just care much less about words than I used to when I was a lib. Sure I work pretty hard to avoid causing offence and I work to avoid words that are overly oppressive and that play into stuff like toxic masculinity but at the same time, on some level, it's really not high priority to me compared to what else is going on.
Even if, if, China was a Han-supremacist ethnostate - what are you gonna do about it, and if you're a westerner then what grounds do you stand on to make such an accusation and, more to the point, what are you doing about the white supremacism in your own backyard exactly?
Libs treat political concerns like bumper stickers - you just slap one that has the right wording on and dust your hands off, satisfied in the knowledge that you've done your part.
I think this whole thing is just westerners universalising their own local experience and projecting it onto China - they aren't eradicating poverty they're just cooking the books, they don't trust their government because all (my) government is untrustworthy, they can't be making immense strides in infrastructure because ours is crumbling so everything they build must also be tofu dreg construction etc.
100% correct. most americans are so thoroughly poisoned by capitalist realism that they believe unconsciously that it is impossible for a government to improve its society. so when they encounter evidence that china has done just that, their brains short circuit and they are forced to conclude the evidence is made up. depressing
Death to America
It was only recently that there was a Han (meta)cultural revival. Before then there was a big danger in parts of pre-revolutionary culture disappearing, while minority culture was being preserved. Look, for instance at the historical accuracy of the average Chinese Kung Fu flick vs today.
reminds me of the way Westoids talk about Africa like it's one giant country/ethnicity. no, it's like 1000s of ethnicities!
People who've never come close to having a successful revolution absolutely love finger-wagging at those who have. Same energy as those who've never written a line of code trying to tell me how to do my job.
Gamers really hate China for some reason, I guess we’ll never know
Easy scapegoat. Hate a balance patch? Blame China.
Xi Jinping personally invented wokism and also the method of shoving it down Gamers' throats.
Ask them why a Han supremacist country would force population control exclusively on the Han population lol
Communist In Name Only = CINO = SINO
It's all coming together
"The only people that claim china is han-supremacist are the far right so who have you been reading/hanging out with?"
Like even libs will concede that it's not that. People should be challenged for repeating far right fascist propaganda.
This is so blatantly untrue, I've met so many PMC Bernie bros who believe this. Actually, I think more PMC Bernie bros think China is Han-supremacist than not...
The issue is they're all hardcore redditors
They got it from fascists spreading it on reddit and did absolutely no critical thinking about who was saying it because they wanted to believe it due too their anti-china brainworms. It's still fascist in origin. It's literally in the Christchurch shooter's manifesto, raising this with them makes them extremely uncomfortable.
I remember seeing a Tucker Carlson video where he says China is a han ethnostate and it's just like ???
It seems even standard smug libs have even taken up this talking point, total fucking brainworms.
The Christchurch Mosque shooter's manifesto said he thought China was a Han ethno state and that's good actually.
So I guess there are worse takes out there...
Dictatorship of the proletariats