funny thing, when recalled home, double agents, or useful idiots, expect to be sitting on the podium with their paymasters, but generally end up in a re-education camp, or worse.
True:
by nature, they can not be trusted whatever the sides.
But they get immediate benefits and can pretend to believe.
The problem with thread like this one is the near obsessive views of some to only see one side, and generally not look in their own dark mirror.
Hang on to your seats:
Probably naively due to age , i saw the pre Berlin wall collapse world quite black and white:
Evil side: red guards, USSR , KGB,khmer rouges facing the good Western side..
Of ctiurse, Pinochet, Vietnam, Bokassa showing that the CIA and European services were not angels...
But the evil/good side still mostly made sense..
Forward to 2025:
Was an Ukrainian, even BEFORE Putin invasion, having more freedom than a Chinese? Sure not, and as Zelinsky is losing control, much worse now with a full dictatorship in place.
Is the average guy in the street in Sydney or China SZ freedom much different?
West Joe vs Chinese or Russian guy :
Travel restrictions, mandatory jabs, ongoing surveillance, arguably i know no real/very limited choice of representatives, high propaganda feed, low education in critical analysis , history, geopolitics,petty day to day policing (smoking, speed limits, jay walking , littering..you name it and restricted access to law for the commoners, high taxation.
The western commoner has been pushed back to the subservient masses, with the ruling elite taking control.
Not only mega rich capitalistic wolves over the sheep a la Karl Marx but politicians, corrupt representatives..
Here in Australia not so much yet, just a road for a PM or a winery tour in limousine for a mp, or look at the cosy deals in Noosa or Sunshine coast shires for actual next door examples i see everyday.
But the royalty of the past in the West are being born again;
The seized chateaux of the revolution now inhabited by a new mostly unelected clique, soon generational : in France, the swamp in the US and Washington DC, all the EU administrative Mafia....
They literally live like kings,all expenses paid by the slaves..sorry taxpayers
Sharks frenzy feeding on the remains of our democracies,smashing middle class and putting the masses back to the russian style serfdom, often under the disguise of socialism or ecology.. the irony.
So as per JD Vance speech to the EU caste, let's look at ourselves first before throwing stones.
Once done, i would feel better with these threads.
Currently, it is a bit hypocritical imho and too easy to turn into a racist slant, even if we (nearly) all agree , i do, on some of the evils of the CCP.
Note
I am only involved in this thread as i recently live nearly 3y on mainland China, met some great people there, am aware of the limitations and believe i know more about eastern cities China than a few random youtubers