If you’re not aware who gweilo60 is, then he’s a YouTuber that usually goes around China filming himself and giving commentary. He gets a lot of flak for supposedly being a CCP shill. Which maybe sometimes is fair and sometimes it isn’t. I would probably agree more with him than most of his critics.
https://www.youtube.com/@Gweilo60
I think he’s right about many of the things happening in the Western world. Maybe he’s a bit too positive about China sometimes, but I don’t get that impression most of the time. I don’t think going back to Canada to receive medical treatment for his wife is hypocritical. People bring up that alot, going something like: “Well, if you love China so much and China is this beautiful country, you spend all this time bashing Canada, then why do you come crawling back to Canada?” The first problem is that I’ve never really heard him sing the praises of Chinese medicine. The other is that I don’t see the problem of a Canadian citizen living abroad to receive medical treatment in Canada. That’s literally one of the things which being a citizen of the country entitles you to.
Maybe the logic goes something like, well if you’re always bashing Canada and praising China then you’re basically a traitor and don’t deserve the privileges that come with being a Canadian citizen. Which is funny, because they’d be becoming exactly that which they’re criticizing. It shouldn’t really be controversial to say that in comparison to Canada the streets are cleaner and cities are safer. That’s mostly what he seems to talk about when walking around Nanning. Public transportation is much better than what you’d find in Canada. China has a strong identity and culture. China promotes non-degenerate values. China isn’t seeking to ethically replace its own people. China isn’t teaching its own people to hate themselves. China isn’t infected with the woke mind virus. There’s more competency in China.
There are clear downsides. I’m not going to make an extensive list here because that’s not the point, but China has some good upsides. Then it’s funny because I’ve only seen this kind of nationalism from the West when it regards China. Think most of these people criticizing are the Twitter/Redditor/Leftist crowd. Suddenly now everything becomes great about the Western world. They’ll start spouting:
A true patriot is someone who’s not afraid to criticize their country, in the hopes of being able to improve it.
Which I’m not sure anyone actually believes. When the topic of China pops up on social media or the news you usually are presented with two extremes. So, if I got to chose I think I side more with the pro-China side. There are many things about this country (America) that aren’t good and are just done better over there. Most of the real foreigners living in China probably aren’t involved in all these culture wars anyway.
That make me a traitor? Lol. I can understand right-wingers throwing around accusations like that, but it’s laughable hearing it from leftists. Course, one of those leftists ever actually decided to charge you for treason then it’d become less laughable. Seems in the end it’s best to praise whatever authorities you live under. Only the “correct” kind of criticism is what seems to be welcomed in Western societies today. “Patriot”, huh.
Though I feel like the best strategy for China to change its image is to help create more things like Genshin and spread it internationally. China has the talent to create games, dramas, and cartoons. Get a decent amount of people playing media that originates from China, then I feel people would develop at least a more neutral attitude.
Then lets not pretend like our games or platforms are bastions of freedom. It’s just different things being censored.
