Chinazone 2 - Reds Reds Reds

[@adamgardiner5869]

There's a singular joy to finding a new youtuber, watching one of their videos and then realising it's a series!! Great work, u have a new fan

[@HardThrasher]

China is big! I sort of realised things were going to go sideways when I hit 14,000 words....

[@MrT743]

Plus 1 as per right now😂

[@waynesworldofsci-tech]

@@HardThrasher Damned good job.

[@jesuschrist2284]

Its almost like reading your first iain m banks book and then discovering he wrote more than one

[@jesuschrist2284]

​@@HardThrasherits a nice balance you strike between ranting and factual er stuff

[@kingkairos2437]

Honestly this series on china feels so much like a modern version of the long telegram. Like holy shit mate this is incredible

[@HardThrasher]

Thanks mate, that's a hell of a compliment

[@phann860]

The problem is that the Marxist virus has invaded the West, the usual slogans over thought.

[@DenysBuryi]

Here from LazerPig's 300k video, worth it. You've got a sub, great series.

[@jacksprat9172]

Videos of this educational quality are exceptionally rare but there's a great need for them with many people looking for answers. I've just found your channel and I'm really looking forward to going through the content. Many thanks, suspect your subscriber numbers will go through the roof in short order. Good luck!

[@mikedrop4421]

The audio is much better in this episode. Whatever changes you made are appreciated

[@minime9990]

Came here from lazerpig, he's right, you're brilliant

[@pizzagogo6151]

Great series thanks!....by my goodness the chart of death rate in countries caused by famines is one of the most depressing things I’ve ever seen😞

[@HardThrasher]

It's brutal

[@phann860]

Especially when the famines are man made.

[@minime9990]

My boy hot a new mic!!! Sick shit.

[@FakeSchrodingersCat]

Honestly I would say that the Mandate of Heaven and the cultural history of China plays a more important part then you are giving it credit for. Sure Mao denounced it but the way he denounced it and what he did during the great leap forward and cultural revolution follows the pattern of the fall of past Chinese dynasties and the whims of various emperors who would outlaw and purge based on personal desires killing millions. Similar to how Tsarist Russia's culture and government shaped the Soviet Union's, Communist China under Mao was little more then a rebranded Imperial dynasty and plays a much more important role in shaping China today then anyone wants to admit.

[@HardThrasher]

You may well be right

[@MarcosElMalo2]

@@HardThrasher That’s a diplomatic answer. Tbh, I think you got it pretty much right. My basis for judgement is that I was almost a History Minor in college with an emphasis on Chinese History. 😅 I traveled to China twice, once in 1982 on a vacation with my grandmother, and a second time in 1985 with a university group on a summer semester in Guangzhou. I guess you could say I’m an informed layman or an amateur China Watcher. I do not read or write Chinese. My speaking ability isn’t even enough to order in dim sum. But I can sing the opening bars of the PRC National Anthem. 😉 The PRC is a continuation of empire, but it’s not so simple as that because Marxism-Leninism-Maoism wasn’t merely layered on top of a substrate of Confucianism. Nor should one think of it as a mash up. More of a smash down, where some elements of the previous culture survived (transformed) but others did not. The Chinese communists didn’t take what was useful and leave the rest, the broke the system and a few deeply ingrained elements managed to survive despite repeated attempts to eradicate them. So I think you are right to mention how certain elements of the Confucian tradition informed the formation of Chinese socialism, and you are right to note how Marx and Lenin’s Dictatorship of the Proletariat principle slid neatly into place. A couple of notes that might or might not be interesting: 1) Stalin backed Chang Kai-Shek and the Nationalists over the Chinese communists throughout the war with Japan. When the kmt elements slaughtered PLA elements, Stalin didn’t really do anything to restrain them. 2) One way of looking at 20th C history is as a series oscillations. Reform->crackdown->reform->crackdown. The CR was the aberrational hybrid of the two that tried to be both. The oscillatory nature returned after the CR and various internal power struggles led to the rise of Deng Xiaoping as paramount leader. A good example is the Anti-Spiritual Pollution campaign of 1983, implemented to quash the “pollution” of western democratic ideas that could take hold from the economic reforms Deng was implementing. Oh, and wrt to the CR. Hmm, let’s see. Teachers and intellectual workers were among the first victims of the Red Guards. And the Chinese youth weren’t all sent to the countryside as punishment. Many went voluntarily out of ideological belief. Many were young party members and members of the Red Brigades. That’s all that occurs to me. Sorry this turned into an essay, but the topic is really interesting and you did a good job.

[@johnscollection7816]

A great and complex subject. Serious comments well expressed. What isn’t great about this channel? Well done.

[@anzaca1]

14:27 People complain about the British Museum etc stealing stuff, but it's thanks to that period of huge fascination with the Orient etc and the various museums in the West that a good portion of Chinese history has survived at all.

[@thomascooley2749]

As an American I think they should keep all the stuff and stick a sign in the museum entrance that says stuff we stole hope you enjoy having a look They have archived all sorts of things from all over the world and kept it safe for science and history

[@Fulmir-]

Except that a good chunk of the stuff that was lost was due to the British, see the burning amd looting of the Old Summer Palace. Also if they hadn't f'd around with these Chinese so much they may not have been so unstable that people like Mao could take power, or the Japanese could just up and invade, and a lot of the non-British involved destruction may not have happened at all...

[@gloverfox9135]

@@Fulmir-China has had civil wars and internal turmoil way before the British got involved

[@Rabmac1UK]

It has been a Great Joy to me to have discovered your Channel. Thank you for Honesty, Plain Speaking and a basic adhereance to Facts.

[@lead_farmer69]

Dude, please start a patron. Your content is incredible, please keep it raw as it is ❤❤

[@HardThrasher]

LOL - given my apparent cack handedness with Pinnacle and inability to sort my chuffing microphone out, poor quality is assured 😉 As for Patreon, a very kind thought but perhaps I should walk before I can run :)

[@johnthomas7517]

@@HardThrasher, announce when you do so, you're gettin' a fiver per month from me.

[@lead_farmer69]

@HardThrasher whenever you are ready, I just need a way to get my money out of my account to your account 🙂 the quality of the work speaks for itself and I hate that YT makes it so hard for you guys. Much love! 🇿🇦

[@nightw4tchman]

7:53 Railway enthusiast societies have this problem on lock down. Great videos really glad Lazerpig mentioned you.

[@anzaca1]

11:36 One somewhat amusing aspect of the Cultural Revolution was to do with traffic lights. They decided that "Red = Go", which on paper is fine. The exact colours you use are arbitrary at the end of the day. Except...not all traffic lights in China were changed accordingly. In fact, not even all the lights in a given city were changed. So they ended up with thousands of cart crashes, and had to change the lights back.

[@calebmeyer2121]

Just watched your sub count double, absolutely deserved. Thanks for the series!

[@HardThrasher]

Thank you! Somewhat unexpected as you can imagine....

[@MrElath]

@@HardThrasher The Pig pointed me towards content I like, he's a good pig

[@robertharper3754]

@@HardThrasher, The Pig provides............ But seriously, your videos are fantastic and very well thought out!

[@michaelmcgovern8110]

I had missed this to date! You had me at "naughty words". Excellent scholarship as usual: i'd never seen most of that BBC footage.

[@Brascofarian]

I knew I'd made it as an adult when my mum bought one of my main battle tanks.

[@Bb12396]

I gotta ask what was the generic disease that gets people so heated

[@mikedrop4421]

Capitalism I think

[@daveb6470]

Excellent. Thank you. I spent quite a lot of time working in China and you have educated me.

[@sullivanworkshops710]

Came here from LazerPig. Absolutely loving it! keep up the fantastic work :)

[@gavinmclaren9416]

Another great video. However, Kruschchev's denounciation of Stalin in the (so-called but really quickly leaked to the west) secret speech was in 1956, not 1961, IIRC.

[@Steven-p4j]

I have been to the dog trials, and thankfully, a number of kind QC's took on the case Pro Bono, and eventually every canine was freed with conviction quashed.

[@nerd1000ify]

Pro bone-o, surely...

[@Mattsta2010]

one point. Xi's father didn't die in the Cultural Revolution, his sister did though. His father was a reformer under Deng Xiao Ping, which somewhat led people to believe that Xi Junior would be too. Oh Boy!...did they get that wrong!

[@phann860]

An excellent, short video on the madness of Mao and the affect on the Chinese, especially one Xi Jinping.

[@mahweezy]

Regards frm LazerPig Loving the content and I'm here to stay

[@johnmorris7815]

I’m enjoying this series immensely.

[@eitanamir7918]

You deserve the jump in subscribers, great stuff.

[@TheShrike616]

A strange coincidence: was playing this video on my TV set. Yt connection was severed when the Tien An Men section started. Great video though.

[@fiffi5318]

Im hella confused about the dog condition. I feel like Im missing context

[@HardThrasher]

Ummm - sorry, think I've missed a bit - dog condition?

[@JulianSildenLanglo]

​​​@@HardThrasher the genetic situation mentioned after 8:00

[@mnxs]

​@@HardThrasher This reminds me of something. In the software development community, we know of a related phenomenon, "bikeshedding". Long and funny story short (please go look it up, it's interesting); the number of people that will weigh in their (usually useless) opinion and the ferocity they will argue about it with (to the detriment of ever getting anything done) are inversely proportional to the subject matter's actual seriousness, complexity and prerequisite knowhow.

[@thomaskositzki9424]

Absolutely brilliant video!

[@ChrisAnderson-ez4yk]

The proper carrot/stick idiom alludes to an unattainable reward, not reward versus punishment. Otherwise, brilliant content and delivery. Big fan.

[@AquaticIdealist]

... And you only got better. Can't wait to see through your whole series

[@petrichor3797]

I like you, interesting Internet Man! Keep it up! 😅

[@Tonkatsu672]

Would you consider talking a bit about Taiwan's/KMT history? I'm a second gen Taiwanese in the US and it all feels so far removed.

[@steve4562]

Great rehash of the insane Great Leap Forward. Mao was bored with details and considered himself a poet. His on the record comments about mass killing remains unbelievable. Of course he's still celebrated as the George Washington of the CCP. Mao: The Unknown Story by Jung Chang is a great book that ought to be used in history classes.

[@henrikelialmaas1650]

The pig sends his regards.

[@LordMondegrene]

Fascinating to hear Mao tried to wipe out sparrows, thinking they ate crops. Mussolini tried the same thing, because he saw a bird on an ear of wheat.

[@HardThrasher]

Dictators gonna dictate

[@LordMondegrene]

@@retiredbore378 ... so they had massive outbreaks of mosquitoes and other pests, because that's the staple diet of many songbirds. The resulting crop failures killed millions.

[@toastyturtle1767]

Damn, trials with spaniels? We get all sorts in Australia, but I don't think I've seen a spaniel.

[@tonyduncan9852]

I'm glad you didn't quite lose your will to live. 😎

[@capitalaviation]

This channel is hilarious. Well done

[@balaclavabob001]

13:18 ... is that guy ... is that guy pointing at a goat that's looking over it's shoulder and poking it's tongue out ?

[@ThatSockmonkey]

Oh, i have dogs! Well, one at the moment, but a new one is coming soon. We lost 3 dogs to old age over the last 18 months, and we also lost 3 cats in the same time period, plus a rabbit i rescued....sigh. Anyway, i don't have enough kids, so I'm getting a new one within the month. Maybe a 6yo husky.... Dogs are the best people.

[@danstobbart4406]

Seriously good vids...give yourself a small medal.👍

[@Т1000-м1и]

Here when 24.8k subscribers

[@comentedonakeyboard]

After being called revisionists, the soviets in turn denounced Mao as a "petit burgeois, grand power chauvinist, nationalist" or basicaly a Nazi. They were not that far of.

[@HardThrasher]

That there is fightin' talk

[@dominic4049]

Germans then: f*ck the english Me a german now: yes English man tell this german potato more about china

[@britfox7766]

I think you confused some of the events of the Cultural Revolution (for example, the Up to the Rivers, etc, was done to try and decrease the CR's intensity by splitting up the urban Red Guard groups and sending them off to different parts of the country, where many saw the horrors of the GLF and became disillusioned.) Otherwise you did a good job of simplifying the whole history of Mao's red-painted imperial dynasty. However, calling Xi Maoist is a bit problematic. It's probably wiser to just look at Mao, Deng, and Xi as leaders with similarities and differences, because the differences are pronounced enough.

[@HardThrasher]

I think he is Maoist because he is taking the party back to pre-Deng roots and cutting down on the free market stuff - he's using a lot of Maoist phrases and maxims to do it. It is fair to say that may be an over simplification.

[@britfox7766]

@@HardThrasher That's a fair reason, but obviously using communist language isn't the same thing as being communist; I doubt we have any disagreement there.

[@HardThrasher]

No, but Xi absolutely is a 100% dyed in the wool Communist believer in a way really we haven't seen for decades, and we should bear that in mind when talking about him

[@MarcosElMalo2]

The main similarity with Mao is the consolidation of power. Deng never fully consolidated power, rather he built a multi-faction power base that allowed him to push through his reforms. He was appointed head of the military but still had to make compromises with socialist hardliners in the PLA. I think Deng was more concerned about implementing economic reform than in waiting until he had absolute control. Xi seems more interested in establishing absolute power.

[@britfox7766]

@@MarcosElMalo2 That's true. Wanting absolute power obviously isn't confined to being a Mao thing, but I take your point.

[@tomaszmalinowski4316]

one correction/clarification re 10:19: Nikita Khrushchev didn't deliver his famous "secret speech" in 1961, but in early 1956, at the 20th Congress of the Communist Party. and it wasn't the case at all that he suddenly learned about the barbaric crimes of Stalin's regime and was appalled by them - in fact, he was appointed the First Secretary of the Ukrainian SSR back in 1938, so he was basically the guy who ran Uncle Joe's show in Ukraine and actively implemented the reign of terror then and there. he just wanted to cover his own ass, wash his hands of the crimes by blaming them squarely on Stalin and make sure he wouldn't meet his end in another purge at the hands his comrades. and it actually worked rather well for him - when in 1964 he was deposed by Brezhnev, he wasn't summarily shot, sent to Gulag or even arrested, he was just strongly advised to retire to his dacha and invest his time in gardening, fishing and playing with his grandchildren instead of meddling with the affairs of the Greatest Country in the World, the Homeland of All Workers and Peasants.

[@ThatSockmonkey]

Blech🤮. I'm glad my granddad got out before all of this...its just awful what those idiots did to the Chinese people.

[@asherroodcreel640]

Hey you've read a lot more then I have so far I've figured out that ideas are also a from of technology and that the linear end of history bullshit we've had fisted into our months makes it very hard to actuality understand anything, what makes a good leader? What policies tend to work in what environments why and why not, what ideas tend to last and why do others fade into obscurity, and how do you geuss the mood of a populus, none of these are esay questions and rupture most Ideologies, I'm reading the dawn of everything thats very good but otherwise where the hell do I start?

[@HardThrasher]

I mean I think I'm supposed to say read Das Capital and then Smith's Wealth of Nations but don't, you'll die of boredom. If how ideas evolve is your thing then you could do worse than In The Shadow of the Sword by Tom Holland which is basically about religions evolve and is a good read too

[@asherroodcreel640]

@@HardThrasher"my friend was playing with the unpigment hairs on the side of stupids leg and I had to tell him again that British is much better then American Chinese but it hurts to think how American exeptionalism probably isn't ture even in this case" -David Graeber

[@robashton8606]

When I was a teenaged idiot fooling about in left-wing politics, "down to the country, then up to the mountains" had a very different, not to say heretically decadent meaning after a few snakebite and blacks. Good times.

[@m.streicher8286]

a buzzed conversation about doggy eugenics sounds like the worst thing ever.

[@MrPigfarmer23]

Another great video

[@enoughothis]

The Russian-Chinese relationship is just plain weird. In many ways they're like an old married couple that hates each other and argues a lot but they REALLY, REALLY hate Sam from next door. In fact it almost went nuclear. In 1974 the Russians asked Nixon if he would be cool with Russia "neutralizing" the Chinese nuclear arsenal.

[@Ostentatiousnessness]

“Mao was a great guerrilla fighter.” However the ability to fight Gorillas well does not guarantee the ability to run a country well.

[@highjumpstudios2384]

You remind me of old Kraut doing new kraut style videos. Except you're british.

[@athelwolfofessex5984]

fantastic videos man cheers for your content! greetings from Switzerland🇨🇭

[@jensphiliphohmann1876]

About 00:55 seems to show the GDP of former Soviet republics but what are the two bars hiding?

[@HardThrasher]

You know what, I cannot remember now, sorry

[@Irobert1115HD]

the great leap into the garbage bin.

[@Buczo997]

10:36 The bock title is in polish

[@anzaca1]

Please just black out logos etc. The weird blurring is making me feel unwell.

[@HardThrasher]

It's bloody YT making me remove copyrighted things post production. Sorry

[@stekra3159]

The other Superpower aside from the US and the EU

[@m.streicher8286]

If not for the great leap forward, china might've become a preeminent player much sooner

[@Steven-p4j]

Except Mao was more of, a, well, more of, the greatest psychopathic killer of humans ever. But apparently he was very fond of omelets made with the barrel of a gun. He wasn't so much of a guerilla fighter, so much as a frumpy slob who was carried on the long march on a palanquin. He also never met a dog which he didn't eat. I have some splendid photos I took of him using a stereotype camera. He was able by guile, able to secure hundreds of millions of US dollars from the USSR to secure things for himself and slept with every woman possible to pass the cold winter nights, even in summer. The west held a fully televised funeral for him which took most of a day and was covered by every TV channel, god bless him.

[@hampter8056]

From lazerpig 300k video. keep up the good worck man even tho i whatch 3 or 4 history chanels they arent as fun as your one because the armachair historian is just plain boring. Extra history a but wierd and simple history is just simple history.

[@louisgiokas2206]

No one wants to return to the Cultural Revolution, especially Xi himself? You might want to do a little research. There are many that see Xi bringing back the Cultural Revolution (version 2.0) and they have specific actions they can point to.

[@HardThrasher]

I think perhaps we agree more than you think - the stuff he doesn't like is change and chaos, and indeed he wouldn't welcome the changes in the balance of power the the CR caused. But he is highly authoritarian, and has very much focused on his cult of personality, and he idolises Mao (in public anyway)

[@alexv3357]

2:30 the oil price 'Anich' is buying at isn't _nearly_ unprofitable, it's _extremely_ unprofitable and is going to be so no ifs ands or buts well into 2030s even if everything goes as planned

[@chriscunningham9740]

What genetic disease is this? edit: Is it rage syndrome?

[@U_Go_Boom]

I have no idea where you got your sources for this video, but, saying that Mao knew nothing about economics is foolish at best. The man wrote entire works about economic theory and many of his policies transformed the country for the better. This whole video just seems like you took some conservative anti-communist propaganda and changed the words around a bit to make it look like you didn't copy their homework. The extent of the famines has been massively overblown by cold war sources, many of which have now been disproven. While I am not denying that famines happened as a result of some of Mao's policies, those policies weren't the only reason they happened. Also, Mao didn't disagree with Khrushchev because he was "targeting him," he disagreed with him because he believed that the period of socialist development in the USSR was complete, which it wasn't, a factor that would plague the USSR for the rest of its existence. Mao also was one of the key proponents of the Hundred Flowers movement. saying "the policy of letting a hundred flowers bloom and a hundred schools of thought contend is designed to promote the flourishing of the arts and the progress of science." I don't have a problem with you criticizing Mao and other socialist leaders, it is a healthy practice that ensures that previous mistakes won't be made. What I am not okay with is when your arguments are supported by false facts and already disproven propaganda lines.

[@HardThrasher]

Mao's economic policies were universally disastrous. He understood Marx and Engels, and he understood politics but economics, not at all. What he did and what he wrote were disastrous for his people and his country and is evidenced by the millions he killed in the process. Mao persecuted the authors of the hundred flowers movement, killing and imprisoning them and their families.

[@U_Go_Boom]

@@HardThrasher Did you not even read a word of what I just said, because it seems like you don't.

[@m.streicher8286]

​@@U_Go_Boomyeah okay but what actually happened?

[@muha0644]

"Reds Reds Reds"? more like "lies lies lies" _well it'd be more correct to says deliberate misinformation and misrepresentation of truth rather than outright lies but this seems more dramatic_

[@knightsnight5929]

Sounds like you need to cope a bit harder.

[@organiccomposition]

Mao lived Mao lives Mao lives forever

[@louisgiokas2206]

I notice that in a lot of your videos you use symbology and video snippets of the US, even when the topic has little or nothing to do with the US. I find this endemic in UK discourse. To an American it seems like a bit of, well let's call it what it is, penis envy. It almost seems as if you haven't gotten over that America Revolution thing, or the US saving your bacon in two world wars in the 20th century, etc. I guess falling from having one of the largest empires ever to, well, having the British Isles, well sort of, has left a bit of sour feeling. Dependence on your "children" can be a bit galling, I guess. By the way, I say this as an American who has lived in the UK.

[@HardThrasher]

Ummm - ok, you know that British public opinion was deeply unconcerned about the loss of Empire at the time and these days is very much opposed to the idea it was a good thing right? We don’t secretly want the Empire back, it was far more trouble than it was worth with our young men being killed in prodigious numbers in far away places for years at a time, a feeling the US knows well. The US is endlessly fascinating though. Its like having hill billy cousin who's got rich on the lottery and helped out with a couple of home invasions. We really like them but also know they have a weird religious thing going on, lots of guns and is a nasty drunk. I mean the US is the primary representative of democracy in the world today, is still the world's largest economy and the guarantor of NATO and thus peace in Europe. All of which is great. But it is also a society of unimaginable inequality, deep contradictions on freedom, rampant racial tensions that have never been properly solved since it's inception despite its civil war, a frankly bizarre political constitution, rampant nationalism which you seem to think is fine and we all think looks well fascist and we’re never quite sure if you mean what you say about democracy. Penis envy, no, deep concern about what you might do next, sure

[@louisgiokas2206]

@@HardThrasher The loss of empire was indeed partially driven by what you point out (the cost in blood and treasure), but it was also driven by the US. Don't forget one of the main reasons the US was pacifist before both world wars. It was perceived in the US that our saving the western European powers would allow them to keep their empires. This was not something Americans wanted to do. Refer to incidents like the Suez Crisis. To understand American politics and what is going on here there are two good sources. One is George Friedman's book "The Storm Before the Calm: America's Discord, the Coming Crisis of the 2020s, and the Triumph Beyond". Another source is the books by Peter Zeihan. I have read them all, but to pick one you might want to read "The End of the World is Just the Beginning: Mapping the Collapse of Globalization". As for your characterization of the US I have to disagree with a lot of it. I don't think we will bridge that gap. I too have an addiction to books. When I moved from the East Coast to the Midwest, where I am now, the movers informed us that we had 3,000 pounds of books. That was 32 years ago, and I have not slowed down. At least now I can get a lot of those books on my Kindle. That said, I am still about to install some more built-in bookshelves (40 feet worth). Actually, I always joked that my three vices were books, whiskey and cigars. I have stopped drinking, so now I only have two. My club, when I was in the UK was the Scotch Malt Whiskey society. My favorite was the 1.81. Sadly, I bought the last two bottles at the members lounge in Edinburgh. I used to keep, in my liquor cabinet, twelve bottles from the Society, a 12- and 18-year-old Glenlivet and the 12-, 18- and 25-year-old Macallan. My wife was a sherry drinker, and we found a place with many different styles. It was quite nice.

[@alexwinfield9540]

​​​@@louisgiokas2206 how did showing up at the end of ww1 save our bacon. This talk is essentially trivialising the deaths of millions is quite frankly disgusting. And I know you lot would go mental of we dared to do that to you. I am glad you don't live here anymore, and with your attitude I am frankly surprised you ever did. I dislike the American attitude to the rest of the world hence why I don't live there and never will.

[@fogrepairshipakashi5834]

Well this aged slightly badly, as China is now directly supplying Russia with intelligence and equipment.

[@m.streicher8286]

As a token gesture. Like the US and their 30 donated Abrams, they could be doing 10x more, and they aren't.

[@premyslhruza]

There is one takeaway, however a bit indirect. There is fairly visible relation between chinese cultural revolution and current american originated wokeism. So, it is not only some far far away country and its twisted history, actually there is much more to study and learn there. And yes, of course, Marxism and its Maoism offspring are the crucial parts of the issue. Guess where all the most insane ideas were taken from...

[@anzaca1]

Wokeism doesn't exist. It's the label given by Republicans to anything they don't like.

[@fanda54r]

Cmon, china is not a superpower. A superpower should mean that there is only one, thats why the power is super. And its the US btw, the us gdp is basically us + canada

[@HardThrasher]

No a superpower isn't a single power, hence during the Cold War both the Soviet Union and US were referred to as Superpowers. You're coming at this as someone born into the "New American Century"

[@fanda54r]

@@HardThrasher Maybe theyre an economic superpower but they certainly are not a military superpower which in my mind is what really matters

[@HardThrasher]

They've got 2.8m men under arms, roughly twice what the US has, more than 200 ICBMs and a military budget (excluding militas) of $12bn annually so they're not to be sniffed at. That said they don't have the same expeditionary capabilities as the US but way more than Russia has - they're very definitely the next most capable force after the US and if they keep growing like this they'll be a real threat.

[@franklincerpico7702]

He's dead on about how shit Communism is, but then shits on the people opposing it in the US. That's weird.

[@HardThrasher]

So strange. It's as if there aren't communists running for office in the US.....

[@markrunnalls7215]

Look at Mao's haircut ..that's defiantly a communist version of Channel number 5 ..

[@Lowe505]

excellent

[@markrunnalls7215]

I don't know how true this is ,but I have heard that China wants to reopen the silk road ,and talking to someone initially from Pakistan the other day who was saying that Kashmir has calmed done ,makes me wonder the reason why its calmed down is because China wants to reopen the Silk road ,and really in a nutshell arrange on how they can lay there hands on Afghanistan's enormous lithium supply ,(Biggest in the world apparently).

[@HardThrasher]

They do indeed, it's called Belt and Road and I cover it quite a bit in the next two parts

[@markrunnalls7215]

@@HardThrasher good grief, cheers for that 👍👍😊

[@markrunnalls7215]

Fend off bodies ..holy crap Really ...