@Dungeness @TaiShang
As much as I despise the US government, I have to admit they are managing to keep the war away from their mainland. Better to let other countries be the battlegrounds.
Countries like China, US and Russia are massively building up their scientific and technological power... while the heavily religious Middle East is imploding under its own weight.
Now as the Middle East continues to implode for another decade or two, see how the military and technological power of China/US/Russia will grow. With a single ship we will have more destructive power than all of ISIS combined.
Now we have the fastest supercomputer in the world using Chinese microchips, in a few decades that computing power will look completely insignficant compared to the Quantum supercomputers we will have. And meanwhile the Middle East will still keep blowing itself up, passing the hatred from generation to generation.
Nothing we can do for them. When a child has seen their parents blown up by ISIS, a barrel bomb or an American drone, that's not the kind of hatred that just dissapears after a few years. This is a hatred that will be passed down for several generations at the very least.
Scientific pragmatic secular developmentalism and progressivism vs. archaic sectarianism, hatred, division, underdevelopment and regression. That's the difference between secularism and religiosity; Middle East and East Asia.
I am glad our combined civilizational culture is essentially mundane, secular and accountable to the living world, not to the imaginary post-world or after world on which we have no control.
Those regions you mention have little or no chance for progress. Hence, even when they keep hating the West or irreligious China or Japan, they will attempt to hurt you by using your own creations/products. Just like hating the US and spreading religious propaganda via Twitter. So much for the anticipated golden age that will supposedly come after they suicide-blow half of the world.
Having interactions with them, I feel and pity for the women and children while despise the religious power elites. Thanks heavens, we have extremely secular and mundane progressive dialectical governments and leaderships on both sides of the Straits. I attribute our entire progress to these values. The West, similarly, achieved progress only after they decided to root out religion from their public domains. Whatever remains are cultural rituals that unify people and add color.
Stop putting words in China mouth!
It's coming from your media..
While officially we don't form any alliance with Russia let alone Iran and Pakistan
Officially, we do not have any alliance.
We have not signed any single document that says we are allying with any other state entity.
And, not in this universe will there be a chance for China to form alliance with a state, let alone with a religion.
The guy is quoting Indian and other radical media which uses such technical terms very liberally/loosely. For masses, of course, no difference between a partner and an ally. But, for a diplomat or bureaucrat that actually write those documents, terminology is of the utmost importance. It is so for polities with deep and comprehensive state tradition. Banana republics might think an ally and a partner is actually the same thing.
First they say your food is not halal, then they say the smell of your food is not halal, then the supermarket you shop is not, then the chair you have sat on, then..........
They are segregating themselves from the majority of society. This trend needs to be stopped!
This is how it goes. You give one inch, they ask for three more. There is no end because they are essentially totalitarian in their world view. Just look at the shameless argument made on this thread, poking their nose in our sovereign affairs based on some fuzzy ideas of religious affinity. Then it is clear how much menace these people create in their own societies. This explains the radicalization tendency in those countries with no limit.
They will start with small concessions. Food, transportation, school, supermarket, etc. Then they will spread their control over your life. It is the women that suffer the most because religious totalitarianism is very patriarchal. Then child brides, children's violation (I read news from Turkey recently regarding minor boys being exploited by religious groups), violent control of the public domain will be a norm.
It is a cancer and the cancer is best to be removed at its very onset. China's move is in fact a belated one. But, better than nothing. Russia learned it the hard way in the Caucasus. I think what China wants is a harmonious transition to secular popular culture.