In the search for stability, some western nations are turning to a country that many in Washington see as an existential threat
If geopolitics relies at least in part on bonhomie between global leaders, China made an unexpected play for Ireland’s good graces when the taoiseach visited Beijing this month. Meeting Ireland’s leader, Micheál Martin, in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China’s president, Xi Jinping, said a favourite book of his as a teenager was The Gadfly, by the Irish author Ethel Voynich, a novel set in the revolutionary fervour of Italy in the 1840s.
“It was unusual that we ended up discussing The Gadfly and its impact on both of us but there you are,” Martin told reporters in Beijing.
China is on a charm offensive with western leaders, a path cleared by Donald Trump’s increasingly erratic and destabilising power grabs on the global stage. Although Europe breathed a sigh of relief this week when Trump withdrew the threat of using military force in Greenland and said he would not impose tariffs on opponents of his plans in the Arctic, the US no longer seems like a reliable partner.
Running from one superpower dependency to another.
Lateral move at best.
Xi cares about Xi.
For the tankie who inevitably wull ackshuallys me: https://www.reuters.com/world/china/nobody-is-safe-chinas-xi-targets-his-close-ally-purge-2026-01-26/
That’s what Xi does to his closest friends.
The article I saw yesterday about this Gen. Zhang Youxia said he was leaking sensitive information to the US. I wonder why Reuters declined to mention this accusation.
It seems like, maybe, with a title like “nobody is safe”, the authors are trying to scare us more than they’re trying to inform us.
It’s also a bit strange that they’re spinning the fact that this guy’s status and personal connections didn’t make him immune as a bad thing. If we were talking about western politics this would be a virtue.
Sure he was. 🙄
The question isn’t whether he was committing treason. The question is why would the author of the article omit this information. It’s highly relevant, even if you don’t believe it’s true.
Again, the article’s title (“Nobody is safe”) is expressly written to invoke fear. The article’s author could’ve written “… And he is accused of leaking information to the west; a flimsy excuse.” or something, but they chose not to included that information.
What a surprise…
The world will be a better place with China as a more dominant world power. People are going to get a taste of what real cheap and well made commodities are like without the looming threat of economic warfare. They are gonna get electrified infrastructure with cheap solar panel tech.
Well everyone except the US. We will continue to rot and suffer as our political class insists that if we only deregulate our industries for a few billionaires to jerk each other off over while actively working to collaborate with and bolster the fascist elements of the owner class.
The future is socialist. The US is hellbent on staying in the past and wants to drag everyone down with them.
Is China socialist, though? I keep seeing them labeled as being communist and socialist but they seem like something else altogether.
It’s more like a state controlled capitalism. They do tons of business, have plenty of billionaires, exploited workers working ridiculous hours, hunger wages, etc., but without the ability to vote or access information freely.
It’s not a model to emulate.
Why are you lying and framing things in this deceptive way?
Yes people in China go to work like everyone else. Yes they have billionaires but that class is shrinking every year as China implements further restrictions on them - its one of the current primary goals of the CPC.
Yes there is inherently exploitation there but they are working very similar hours to many of our citizens. The difference being their government actually provides for them when they work 45+ hours while American citizens are doing that more of then than not working several jobs to still not be able to survive.
Chinese citizens get paid less than US citizens do on average but their cost of living is also drastically lower because of wildly socialized programs of housing, medicine, transportation, etc.
China has a consultative Democratic structure which seeks robust input from its citizens on issues that they need solved and then actually prioritizes them. It’s a massive part of their culture.
Chinese people literally access the western internet all the time with VPNs that the government really doesn’t crack down on or care about.
All of this is really easy information to find in both western and eastern sources. I guess that is kinda hard for you to get to when you are hellbent on spreading easily disprovable propaganda tho.
The citizens in China have some of the highest approval ratings of any country in the world and express that they believe overwhelmingly it is Democratic, though not perfect.
I can’t wait to hear about how you also think they are doing genocide in Tibet and Xingjang next lmao.
What model do YOU think we should be emulating?
