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Except for the West Bank, which is obviously anti-American and anti-Israel, and Pakistan which is so heavily tied to China through hundreds of mutual agreements which makes it pretty much a vassal state, the southeast Asian countries -- Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia -- do have sizeable Chinese emigre populations which also have not only large businesses but also influence over some aspects of those countries' government policies including foreign trade and relationships.
China may be a dictatorship, but they actually put tax money into public projects. When they say they are going to do a project for the next X years it actually gets done. As a result, when cool new projects come up, the infrastructure is already there. It is one of the reasons why Chinese EVs are so good and so cheap.
Meanwhile, we have the US where the government is wholly noncommittal to public services that don't extract money from their citizens. They frequently break contracts and agreements when they are no longer profitable or beneficial to the upper class. We have private militaries kidnapping and killing legal citizens just for existing.
It's no wonder people view the US less favorably than China. Both are evil, but at least China doesn't behave like a petulant child.
I'll take a dictator that seems to care about the well-being of their country over a wannabe dictator that only cares about getting paid any day.
Americans scream and spit on Chinese democracy while they cling to electoral colleges and governor appointed senators and the fight to disenfranchise minority voters en mass.
I just don't know how to take any of it seriously. China's a dictatorship because it's ruled by a single, seemingly insurmountable communist party. But Texas and Florida can elect Republicans to a bulletproof supermajority for 40 years and that's just the Will Of The People.
A Congress with a 20% approval rating enjoys a Lockean Mandate, while a Parliament with 50-70% approval is a tyrannical regime of brutal oppression.
And don't even get me started on prison population...
How are we even defining democracy anymore? It just seems like American Exceptionalism.
How are we even defining democracy anymore?
There are multiple organisations invested in rating democracies worldwide, the main one is from The Economist EIU ,(https://www.eiu.com/n/campaigns/democracy-index-2025/, there are numerous places where the raw data is published more accessible such as here: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/democracy-index-eiu).
I personally prefer the index made by Freedom House (https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world) because it includes what a regular citizen experiences:
For each country and territory, Freedom in the World analyzes the electoral process, political pluralism and participation, the functioning of the government, freedom of expression and of belief, associational and organizational rights, the rule of law, and personal autonomy and individual rights.
Their assessment of the US democracy:
EIU (2024): 7.85/10, "flawed democracy" Freedom in the world score (2025): 81/100
These scores obviously are not about other things that matter, like economic stability or access to healthcare.
"I'll take a dictator..."
This is a MAGA talking point and repeated by MAGA supporters.
No we won't.
In my experience, the kind of person that will purity test a hypothetical is probably gonna join the dictator's vanguard.
Chinese EVs are so cheap because of the massive direct subsidies they get from the Chinese government, not because of some infrastructure.
They are cheap because of the infrastructure AND because of subsidies. But to be honest, European automotive companies also once started out with massive subsidies. Companies like Volkswagen were completely government sponsored in the beginning.
Europe: "They both suck!"
They both suck but currently the us suck a bit more. Is it because of them acting like the abusive partner they are and that side is finally revealed? Dislike with a side of betrayal.
The EU is slowly moving the US to the same category China was already in.
There is more loud animosity towards the US because they are more interegrated today because of the old trusts that are being broken.
You shun heathens but you burn heritics and all
Russia is absolutely cleaning house this decade. Daaaaamn
Given the news cycles unerring focus on Trump's circus, this isn't surprising. Xi has been very quiet of late, though his support of Russia may flip some of those values once the dust settles and the news cycles shifts focus once more.
I suppose it could also just be because Xi is the more skilled autocrat?
news cycles unerring focus on Trump’s circus
The problem here is Trump making a circus, you honestly can't blame the news media for rightfully reporting on it.
Who's blaming the media? It is what it is.
Seems good at what he is doing, but China is so big he could just be quietly fucking up and it'd take a while to be able to tell.
Momentum is a hell of a thing
Both governments suck, but the US's currently does more. So I'd agree.
