747
Anti-Imperialism means recognizing capitalist states like Russia and China as such
(lemmy.dbzer0.com)
this post was submitted on 04 Aug 2026
747 points (91.3% liked)
Lefty Memes
7266 readers
797 users here now
An international (English speaking) socialist Lemmy community free of "ML" (read: Dengist) influence. This is a place for undogmatic shitposting and memes from a progressive, anti-capitalist and truly anti-imperialist perspective, regardless of specific ideology.
Serious posts, news, discussion and agitprop/stuff that's better fit for a poster than a meme go in c/Socialism.
If you are new to socialism, you can ask questions and find resources over on c/Socialism101.
Please don't forget to help keep this community clean by reporting rule violations, updooting good contributions and downdooting those of low quality!
Rules
0. Only post socialist memes
That refers to funny image macros and means that generally videos and screenshots are not allowed. Exceptions include explicitly humorous and short videos, as well as (social media) screenshots depicting a funny situation, joke, or joke picture relating to socialist movements, theory, societal issues, or political opponents. Examples would be the classic case of humorous Tumblr or Twitter posts/threads. (and no, agitprop text does not count as a meme. Please post agitprop here)
0.5 [Provisional Rule] Try to use alt text or image descriptions to allow for greater accessibility
(Please take a look at our wiki page for the guidelines on how to actually write alternative text!)
We encourage alternative text (from now referred to as "alt text") to be added to all posts/comments containing media, such as images, animated GIFs, videos, audio files, and custom emojis.
EDIT: For files you share in the comments, a simple summary should be enough if they’re too complex.
We are committed to social equity and to reducing barriers of entry, including (digital) communication and culture. It takes each of us only a few moments to make a whole world of content (more) accessible to a bunch of folks.
When alt text is absent, a reminder will be issued. If you don't add the missing alt text within 48 hours, the post will be removed. No hard feelings.
0.5.1 Style tip about abbreviations and short forms
When writing stuff like "lol" and "iirc", it's a good idea to try and replace those with their all caps counterpart
- ofc => OFC
- af = AF
- ok => OK
- lol => LOL
- bc => BC
- bs => BS
- iirc => IIRC
- cia => CIA
- nato => Nato (you don't spell it when talking, right?)
- usa => USA
- prc => PRC
- etc.
Why? Because otherwise (AFAIK), screen readers will try to read them out as actually words instead of spelling them
1. Socialist Unity in the form of mutual respect and good faith interactions is enforced here
Try to keep an open mind, other schools of thought may offer points of view and analyses you haven't considered yet. Also: This is not a place for the Idealism vs. Materialism or rather Anarchism vs. Marxism debate(s), for that please visit c/AnarchismVsMarxism.
2. Anti-Imperialism means recognizing capitalist states like Russia and China as such
That means condemning (their) imperialism, even if it is of the "anti-USA" flavor.
3. No liberalism, (right-wing) revisionism or reactionaries.
That includes so called: Social Democracy, Democratic Socialism, Dengism, Market Socialism, Patriotic Socialism, National Bolshevism, Anarcho-Capitalism etc. . Anti-Socialist people and content have no place here, as well as the variety of "Marxist"-"Leninists" (read: Dengists) (actual ML's are welcome as long as they agree to the rules and don't just copy paste/larp about stuff from a hundred years ago).
4. No Bigotry.
The only dangerous minority is the rich.
5. Don't demonize previous and current socialist experiments or (leading) individuals.
We must constructively learn from their mistakes, while acknowledging their achievements and recognizing when they have strayed away from socialist principles.
6. Don't irrationally idolize/glorify previous and current socialist experiments or (leading) individuals.
Notable achievements in all spheres of society were made by various socialist/people's/democratic republics around the world. Mistakes, however, were made as well: bureaucratic castes of parasitic elites - as well as reactionary cults of personality - were established, many things were mismanaged and prejudice and bigotry sometimes replaced internationalism and progressiveness.
- Absolutely no posts or comments meant to relativize(/apologize for), advocate, promote or defend:
- Racism
- Sexism
- Queerphobia
- Ableism
- Classism
- Sexual assault
- Genocide/ethnic cleansing or (mass) deportations
- Fascism
- (National) chauvinism
- Orientalism
- Colonialism or Imperialism (and their neo- counterparts)
- Zionism
- Religious fundamentalism of any kind
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Territorial disputes without violence. China hasn't fired on a ship since 1988. They have engaged in territorial disputes over the SCS without engaging in violence. If you want to understand what the alternative would look like, I direct you to the events in the Caribbean.
The UN recognizes Taiwan as a province of China and has done so without interruption for many decades.
And yet, China is not actually doing anything resembling imperialism. You project psychology (ambitions) onto a nation-state (China) because that's all you understand. You don't understand what the possible alternatives are.
Chinese imperialism during the dynastic era is not only well understood and recognized, it's openly discussed in China as the wrong solution to statecraft. Chinese violent and wrong-headed foreign policy during Mao's leadership are also openly discussed in China as the wrong solution to statecraft. The government has openly declared that those decisions were incorrect and have openly established that they are taking a new direction based on more accurate understandings of the principles of statecraft and the consequences of those actions.
This isn't exactly true. The level of violence they have engaged in thus far has been limited but they have absolutely engaged in violence. The same is true for the disputed territory with India. There is regular violence, but it is limited with lines that they have not crossed (i.e. they aren't out there firing missiles and dropping bombs, they doing things like ramming fishing boats or beating people with clubs). I think you are going to be very disappointed by China if you genuinely believe the current government is pacifist or lacks an imperial agenda.
The border dispute with between India and China over that specific border is both millennia old and exacerbated by European colonialism in the region defining boundaries by dictatorial decree. The fact that the border is policed by armed guards wielding clubs is by mutual agreement between India and China and the fact that there was a skirmish is not the same as "China is out there beating innocent people with clubs for their own territorial gains".
As for ramming fishing boats, look at Operation 34A. The US has a history in the region of using fishing boats to lay mines covertly to avoid triggering a response or causing an international incident. The US soldiers were unmarked, wearing civilian clothing and the boats were design deliberately to look like civilian fishing boats.
When you don't know history, it's difficult to understand the present.
If you think China engaged in top-to-bottom self criticism and established the official opinion that previous foreign policy under Mao was incorrect and not beneficial to the Chinese state means that after 40 years of non-violent growth they maintain imperial ambitions because they are still managing ancient border disputes and are defending against real threats from the most violent psychopaths on the planet, I don't know what to tell you.
I'm sorry but this does not come across like a serious argument. China is not ramming fishing vessels because the US once clandestinely deployed mines in the 1960's. If you genuinely believe that I don't know what to say except I hope you develop a more nuanced and realistic understanding of the world.
Re: China beating innocent people with clubs, I didn't quite say that. I am sure some random innocent people have been caught up in it and beaten but on balance I think it has primarily been mutual combat involving provocations from both sides in the India/China border dispute.
I don't think "40 years of non-violent growth" is an accurate statement at all. I can agree that contemporary Chinese imperialism doesn't look like US imperialism and has utilized less violence overall. I think your framing of China vs. violent psychopaths is inherently flawed. China may or may not have fewer of those kinds of people in power compared to other governments, but it has plenty. It's an inescapable fact of humanity that those people exist and have a tendency to seek power, and that power has a tendency to bring out those characteristics in people. There is nothing special about the people of China that make them better than the rest of humanity, the same problems of humanity manifest in China as everywhere else on the planet.
So what you're saying is that China has no valid security concerns behind their actions?
Let's see why.
Well, since 1992 the US has conduct major kinetic military operations against over 14 countries, completely destroying at least 3 of them. Since 1992, China hasn't fired a shot against anyone. So, yeah, doesn't look like it at all. Less as in zero.
Fair. White supremacist Christian Eurocentric empire has only dominated every continent for 600 years, with most national borders across the whole world defined by genocidaires and child rapists, and military bases all over the world that are immune to local laws where young women are kidnapped, raped, and murdered by soldiers weekly and everyone knows it but no one can do anything about because of the violent psychopaths (sorry, I meant USians, who are just like everyone else). Not to mention the US criminal justice system monitoring and managing at least over 3x the number of prisoners and parolees as the next highest country in the world with some of the worst outcomes, worst recidivism rates, and economic extraction practices compared to literally anyone.
But fair, maybe my framing is uncharitable.
Granted. Is it driving the same outcomes? No. It's not. The outcomes are substantially and consistently better and have been for decades without interruption.
And it is the job of a society to develop the social technologies necessary to manage those characteristics effectively. Eurocentric society is the world-crowning pinnacle of what happens when you fail - patriarchal white supremacist ChristoFascist genocidal child raping oligarchs committing mass murder on every inhabited continent to prove how civilized they are.
And yet, the outcomes are different. Is that because Chinese people are racially superior? No. It's because Chinese society has developed superior social technology for managing these problems.
WTF dude. No, that is not what I said. I quit right there because this is a complete non sequitur. Good luck with your ideas, I am out.
I don't see how you don't see the connection. China is asserting that control over the SCS is part of its national security requirements. One of the reasons for this is that the US has been hard at work for over a century projecting power in the region and one of the pillars of that power projection is through its navy. Control over the SCS means asserting territorial boundaries that match Chinese security assessment. It can easily be said that fishing boats are not a threat, and yet, historically, the US has taken advantage of the fact that civilian fishing is not considered a threat to violate the Geneva conventions at in fact use fishing boats to project force and create national security threats for nations in the region. China, therefore, is not willing to accept anything less than total territorial control over the SCS for national security reasons and that means even fishing boats must be expelled from the area.
Do you think there's some other reason for them to expel fishing boats from the SCS? Do you think it's totally unconnected to national security and history? Do you think it's some sort of problem with the personal psychology of Chinese leaders?
The problem is you keep asking if they think this or think that, when their replies clearly show they aren't thinking at all, they're just regurgitating the propaganda they've internalized.