lapplikker said: Globalization, like anything, well...many things...has its pros and cons. Mostly cons.
I would like to point out something that most people don't realise... If they are interested, or even care to know this. Most people will probably say I'm full of shit but here goes:
China is not really communist and hasn't been for a very long time. Socialism with Chinese Characteristics, as they call it, is basically a form of nationalism. It's a patriotism that has all but disappeared in the West and has even become anathema to the ruinous woke ideology running rampant throughout the West. I'm serous when I say that the Woke will destroy the West, which is exactly the intention (Read Douglas Murray for more on this)
You will find none of that self-loathing nonsense in China. While kids in the west are learning that there are 600 genders and that they must hate themselves for their country's colonial past--something they had no control over--kids in China are learning math and science and getting an education.
I can assure you from spending a LOT of time there over the past almost two decades, they are not being indoctrinated with anything other than a love of their country. And why shouldn't they love their country? Patriotism is sorely missing in Western society now. A united country like China will prosper. A divided, confused mess will eventually fail.
If you never go there and don't see for yourself, but just believe the Western media propaganda, you'll never know how advanced it is, how clean and safe it is and that the people are not brainwashed and under the thumb of a mad tyrannical regime. People are just vibing evryday They are literally, (yes literally) dancing in the streets. They drive BMWs and Teslas, they have Mustang Ford owners groups, they modify Hondas. There are no potholes in the roads--none--and the infrastructure in the big cites and increasingly the rural areas is top notch. The freeways rival Germany for quality. For real.
Most people live good lives with a standard of living that can actually compete and in some cases surpasses the crumbling, crime ridden, confused and degenerate west, a place that stands for less and less with each passing year.
China is not some evil boogeyman and it's not going anywhere anytime soon. For China, collapse and failure is not an option. Look, I'm not apologist for the CCP and they are a very opaque and a times sinister organization that has often gotten belligerent under President Xi but I am a realist who'll give credit where it's due. Like South Korea, China has come a long way. Through nationalism, protectionism, and sometimes literally bloody mindedness the achievements of both countries is staggering. I think nobody can deny that. I wish India could do the same but it won't.
I know I will likely get some blowback from this post but again I say, go there and see for yourself. It's very hard to understand China fro the outside and if taking only a western perspective on how the world is or should be. Put geopolitics aside and go. The people are kind and friendly and helpful (even the police. Really) and you're almost guaranteed to return with a different view from when you left.
Thank you for your perspective. Glad to hear you had a good experience in China. Did you get out to the west any, to Xinjiang?
I am divided on China. I think their claiming the entire South China Sea is problematic. If they invade Taiwan is may not go so well for them. And right now, they still need the West for trade.
As for globalism, it's with is whether we like it or not. This particular forum is global. I'm in the US, a couple are from the UK, Oz, Canada, NZ, other places. You're from Norway. Yet we're all talking. That's one side of globalism.
But when it destroys jobs and livelihoods so that corporations can make a killing off of cheap labor elsewhere, that's a problem. If that problem is left unchecked, it can give us protectionism, populist political leaders like Trump and Bolsonaro, trade wars (which killed off some US stores in the late 2010s), and other negatives.
Globalism can also lead to some poorer countries being the dumping grounds for richer nations' waste, or becoming mining pits where people choke to death on toxic dust and fumes so the richer "north" can have cheaper electronics and the like. Globalism is a double edged sword in that respect.
Negotiation instead of confrontation, fair trade, fair deals -- those are the things that are needed more and more in this day and age, yet we don't see a ton of that.