Great points!

The same phenomenon is occurring all across the former socialist bloc. I can personally confirm that this is also happening in Romania.

I would be very interested in that as well. How many people in the US “buy” a house by taking out a mortgage and then don’t even get close to fully paying off the mortgage before moving again, “selling” the previous house and “buying” another one?

The US is an especially bad case because people move so frequently in the US. And almost no one buys a home with the full amount up front. Taken together this means that most homes are never fully paid off and the house is just sold and a new one bought before any “real” ownership (i.e. the bank isn’t able to reposess your house if you stop making mortgage payments) occurs.

The IMF has been pillaging Ukraine since 2014, this is nothing new. They’ve already had a ton of privatization and deregulation (to enable sale of land and state property to foreign capital) forced upon them. This is just the logical next step in the sale of the country and its people to western capital. This is why i am firmly of the opinion that the only thing that can save Ukraine is full annexation by Russia, who could then declare all of the deals made with the IMF and western countries null and void. Unfortunately it doesn’t look like Russia wants to take on that burden.

It is very sad what has happened to Ukraine and what will continue to happen. All the more so because it is partly self-inflicted, like in Argentina.

So I would say there is a dramatic difference between allying with existing liberation forces in a country vs. coming in and trying to quickly force development in a paternalistic way.

Indeed. And I think that what we have seen is that China is willing to offer help to liberation forces that have already become the dominant force in their country, like what happened in the AES (Sahel) states. But it would be damaging to the struggle if China were to throw their support behind groups that are still in the minority. That would make those groups look like proxies of an outside power, which would undermine their legitimacy.

The situation in Palestine is complicated because the officially recognized representative of the Palestinians is the Palestinian Authority. Moreover, China, just like Russia, cannot give help that has not been asked for. Did for example Iran request direct Chinese help beyond economic engagement? Did Venezuela? China does have military deals with Pakistan and an alliance with the DPRK.

And of course their direct involvement in Korea was absolutely correct. Not only was it in their own immediate security interest, but more importantly it was in aid of the officially recognized government of the DPRK and completely in accordance with what the majority of the people there wanted.

Of course you are correct to point out that ideology results from material conditions, which can and do change. What is necessary and correct today may not be the right policy tomorrow.

That being said, i think the point that is being made here, if i can paraphrase a little, is that you cannot force liberation on people who don’t understand that they need it yet. That just leads to resentment.

If the liberation movement is not organically grown through the experience of struggle but imposed from outside, then the resulting system is inevitably going to be fragile. If you do that then people will continue to cling to the idea that there was a better path that they weren’t allowed to try.

People need to be allowed to make their own mistakes and experience first hand why those are mistakes. Just like China had to first experiment with the bourgeois model during the Republican period before understanding that only the socialist path could lead to liberation, sovereignty and prosperity.

The other argument for China’s form of non-interference, which offers development and economic benefits but does not get involved in military conflicts, is that it allows imperialism to expose and discredit itself without being able to justify itself with the excuse of countering interference and global maneuvering by socialist states.

Meanwhile China presents itself as a beacon of stability, a stark contrast to the chaos of the declining imperial hegemony, an always reliable economic partner, a principled respecter of sovereignty, and ultimately a role model for other states to follow if they want stability, sovereignty, development and prosperity.

The biggest blunder that the dying US empire is currently making is giving up on its soft power, blowing up the ideological framework that had justified its hegemony for decades. They are falling into the trap of believing that you can dispense with the ideological pretense and just use hard power. But that pretense was necessary, even if it was understood by most to be a figleaf in front of the threat of hard power.

China is building up the new ideological framework to justify the post-hegemonic, multipolar world order. And for that it is vital that they cultivate an appearance of non-interventionism.

Contrary to popular belief, China’s “Do nothing. Win.” approach actually involves doing quite a lot of things.

oh thank god it wasnt tf2

It’s funny you mention it, because…

And here he is talking about in-game trading as if it was a real life economy

It’s actually hilarious to read the whole thing, it’s truly peak economist brain. And you know why this topic of fake digital economies is so attractive for economists, right? It’s because their theories only work in an artificially constructed reality.

Yep. Sounds unbelievable but it’s true. Look it up. He helped design their so-called “virtual economies”, in-game trading systems and the Steam market place. Basically helped them sell fake virtual items for real money to vulnerable, addicted people (mostly kids).

After that he got appointed as Greece’s Finance Minister, which now in hindsight explains a lot about why Syriza failed so badly…