this post was submitted on 05 Jan 2026
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Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Beijing cannot accept any country acting as the "world's judge" after the United States captured Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro.

The world's second-largest economy has provided Venezuela with an economic lifeline since the U.S. and its allies ramped up sanctions in 2017, purchasing roughly $1.6 billion worth of goods in 2024, the most recent full-year data available.

Almost half of China's purchases were crude oil, customs data shows, while its state-owned oil giants had invested around $4.6 billion in Venezuela by 2018, according to data from the American Enterprise Institute think tank, which tracks Chinese overseas corporate investment.

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[–] DarkFuture@lemmy.world 50 points 4 days ago (2 children)

And now I'm agreeing with China.

Thanks, Trump.

[–] ameancow@lemmy.world 36 points 4 days ago (5 children)

China is an authoritarian dictatorship that tramples human rights and treats its citizens like resources and speed-bumps and treats "free speech" as the joke it actually is.

All that said, they are pulling ahead on the world stage by miles. We don't see it in the US because again... freedom of speech isn't real, media is filtered, but if you travel you see whole other angles on the entire planet and just how much we don't get shown.

For example, you rarely see news about it, but China has launched 3 space stations in the time it took us to make just the documentaries about the ISS and how huuuuge of an accomplishment it was for the world. They are going to be launching probes and setting up smart, realistic goals for exploring the solar system. That's just not the kind high-tech, ambitious, modern project that we associate with our stereotypical imagery of China that we get fed here, but if you actually walk around in any of their new cities you will feel a distinct, sinking sensation that we've already lost.

[–] Aljernon@lemmy.today 8 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

Americans still associate China with shit quality merchandise while glossing over that that merchandise is made shit quality because American Importers selected that level of quality and completely ignoring that they make I Phones and other High quality tech.

[–] ameancow@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago

This is absolutely right and a good point that I think a lot of people really don't get. China isn't filled with the cheap shit we get from China, they have a thriving middle-class, they have luxury goods the likes of which westerners haven't dreamed of. They have quality standards for goods and services probably higher than most places.

It's just that since we get their cheap dollar-store merch and we read stories about traditional Chinese medicine, we get the picture here that they're still largely a backwards, "3rd-world" nation of rice farmers and peasants. It would be like judging the entire US on a sampling of people from the mountains of Appalachia.

Related, but I also find it hilarious when people reference China as "communist" in any capacity.

[–] Jhex@lemmy.world 5 points 3 days ago (1 children)

China is an authoritarian dictatorship that tramples human rights and treats its citizens like resources and speed-bumps and treats “free speech” as the joke it actually is.

if you switched "China" to "The USA" in this sentence, I would have to find details to see if the scale is different but both do exactly the same

[–] ameancow@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Yep. There is no government that actually serves the people, governments serve self-preservation and they tend to do heinous shit to succeed at that. We are not an evolved species but really only because we lack the will to be better broadly.

As individuals we each have vast capacity for learning, caring and understanding the world around us. As a generalized population we are a liquid that flows to the lowest point and erodes everything it touches.

[–] Jhex@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago

I agree... but my point here is that it does not matter it was China who said "x", in this instance "x" is right and people are dismissing it because "cHiNA" but the reality is that every country, powerful enough, acts pretty much the same so I am attempting to split the source from the message

[–] BoJackHorseman@lemmy.world 10 points 4 days ago (3 children)

Is bombing other countries, killing civilians and installing puppet leaders not a violation of human rights?

[–] T00l_shed@lemmy.world 25 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Two things can be true at once

[–] BoJackHorseman@lemmy.world 4 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Those who live in glass houses should not throw stones at others.

[–] T00l_shed@lemmy.world 28 points 4 days ago

Kay, I'm not chinese or american, so, both the us and china do horrendous things. It's not a shittiness competition

[–] OldChicoAle@lemmy.world 11 points 4 days ago (1 children)

As an American I can say that the US and China are both bad....

[–] rustyfish@piefed.world 1 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Alright. The US acted like crap. Therefore nobody is allowed to criticise China. 

Because of the US, we are not allowed to speak about the Uyghur KZs in China.

Because of the US, we are not allowed to criticise China for unlawfully occupying Tibet.

Because of the US, we are not allowed to criticise China for not respecting Taiwans sovereignty. 

Do you understand how hollow you sound?

[–] ameancow@lemmy.world 1 points 4 days ago

No that's just freedom, freedoming places that needed to be freedomed. Oohrah.

[–] raspberriesareyummy@lemmy.world 6 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Three what now? Do you mean three modules for one station? Or three consecutive stations, one testing technology for the next? E.g. a short time station, e.g. a crew vehicle? I am only aware of one station, Tiangong. Do I have to do another web search? :(

[–] INHALE_VEGETABLES@aussie.zone 4 points 4 days ago (1 children)

There's just the one.

It can only house three people.

[–] raspberriesareyummy@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Yeah, that is what I thought. Still, I was impressed when they launched it as announced.

[–] INHALE_VEGETABLES@aussie.zone 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

He may have meant one space station and some extra moon missions or something? They have been popping off a fair bit.

Honestly, I don't care what country dominates and wins the space race, i will just be impressed that we don't kill each other trying.

[–] raspberriesareyummy@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I would prefer for it to be an international cooperation - but we're just fucking this up big time :/

[–] INHALE_VEGETABLES@aussie.zone 2 points 3 days ago

I feel like that astronaut 'always-has-been' meme would drop pretty hard right now

[–] ameancow@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

The current monster they have completed in 2022, Tiangong, was the third in a series of stations, the previous Tiangong-1 and Tiangong-2 stations were mostly meant to test technique and technology but were remarkable achievements in their own right. They currently have the largest and most active space program in the world. I didn't even touch on their lunar program, their heavy satellite capability and their list of recent and upcoming solar-system probes.

[–] raspberriesareyummy@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)
  1. I don't think monster is an appropriate word for a space station.
  2. so yeah, Tiangong-1 & -2 were single vehicle modules for technology evaluation. Similar to Skylab in concept (single launch, test docking technologies & crewed missions)
  3. as impressive as the Chinese space program is, the ISS is substantially bigger. Sadly, the world has not gotten their shit together in time for a follow-up station, and Gateway is pretty much dead-at-conception.
[–] ameancow@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Oh the ISS is definitely bigger than anything ever sent to space, as I would expect from an international project that was built by a coalition of countries in better days, but it doesn't really compare to China's long-term goals and plans that have been on schedule. China is absolutely dominating space right now and will be into the future unless the US just suddenly gets it shit together and elects people who care about science and exploration, and even then it will take many years or decades now to undo the damage that trumpism has done to the US's global leadership in space science.

The ISS is going to be deorbited in 2031, and I am not expecting a bigger, newer project to replace it. At this point I am not expecting to have access to health care broadly in 2031 in the US.

No argument there. China definitely has the better and more advanced space program. The ISS might get extended again if it doesn't break and once people realize there is nothing comparable ready by 2030/31, but yes, eventually, there will be no international nor western space station in orbit for the foreseeable future.

[–] Darkness343@lemmy.world 3 points 4 days ago (2 children)

So what if they do a little authoritarianism? They are attempting to make goddamn fusions reactors, for fucks sake

[–] ameancow@lemmy.world 15 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

It's important to point out balancing factors when discussing the accomplishments of any entity or state.

China is doing amazing things and will likely dominate the coming century, but that doesn't mean we should look at them like heroes or champions, and we need to hold our leaders accountable for wrongs.

It's possible they will get better as they take on more of a global role in the absence of the US hegemony that will likely start to crumble over the next several decades. I hope they give their people more rights and become leaders of world stability, but part of why they're escaping the destabilizing forces that are crushing democratic countries is precisely because they have such an oppressive stranglehold on their own culture. It's a complex situation.

[–] Jhex@lemmy.world 1 points 4 days ago