this post was submitted on 04 Apr 2026
266 points (96.8% liked)

World News

55413 readers
2366 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News !news@lemmy.world

Politics !politics@lemmy.world

World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

China surpassed the United States in global approval ratings in 2025, with a median of 36% approving of China’s leadership, compared with 31% for the U.S. China’s five-percentage-point advantage over the U.S. is the widest Gallup has recorded in China’s favor in nearly 20 years.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] Corporal_Punishment@feddit.uk 32 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (4 children)

Considering China is an authoritarian regime that has no issue with "reeducating" and "disappearing" millions of its own citizens and is bullying its near neighbours making claims over their land and is threatening (with actions) to forcibly reintegrate Taiwan, to be more popular globally than America is no mean feat.

Same way people are supporting Iran over them, even though they are objectively terrible from a moral and ethical standpoint. The world has quickly disregarded the fact they only a couple of months ago they noisily and publicly executed 10s of thousands of protesters.

America is now more unpopular than them. Thats how deep they have sunk

[–] Tolc@lemmy.world -1 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

Multiple lies in your comment, just straight up bullshit lies but you are westerner, the most propagandized species ever who gulps whatever the liberal media says without a second thhought so cant expect more

[–] theacharnian@lemmy.ca 16 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (4 children)

The US is literally doing all the things you're accusing China of. The only reason it gets a pass on the massive carceral state, the largest in the world by far, is because its cultural industry has so normalized it.

The big difference is that China is a net positive when it comes to global stability and addressing climate change, whereas the US is not.

Those of us who care about things like democracy and human rights have a lot of digging to do.

[–] sartalon@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

No one is giving the U.S. a pass. This is a deliberate mischaracterization.

Until this regime, the U.S. had some of the best solar subsidies on the planet.

The U.S., as a surveillance state, is still in its infancy when compared to China. So it is laughable that you are using China in any comparison to the U.S., in almost the same breath.

"Carceral State" is a tanky propagandist dog whistle.

Why don't you debate faults on their own? Because you are deliberately trying to use current bad conduct, of the U.S. to whitewash another country's bad conduct.

"Oh hey, the U.S. is super shitty, but we have made so much solar in the past year so we're all about global stability."

Ignore EVERYTHING China has done though, only look at the bad that the U.S. is doing.

I'm sure you have plenty of arguments that support or claim how China has been with: Taiwan

Uygher people

Support of North Korea

Support of Russia against Ukraine

Tibet

The horde of nonsense "technological breakthroughs" that seem to come every month but never amount to anything and just disappear.

The pollution that has been produced by Chinese industry that pretends to adhere to global standards but get busted when college students use basic satellite data.

Suppression of Hong Kong

China's state sponsored industrial espionage.

China's disregard of human rights abroad when kidnapping Chinese dissidents from foreign countries.

(This is just me pulling the random items I can just immediately recall)?

But that is all Western propaganda I'm sure. Feel free to break out your playbook responses.

I didn't use bad language this time for you to get my comment deleted, since suppression is one of your biggest tools.

[–] theacharnian@lemmy.ca 1 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Funny, ten minutes ago I wrote this: https://lemmy.ca/comment/22610922 literally further down the this very thread.

How can you at the same time say that "carceral state" is a tankie dogwhistle, and also say that nobody is giving the US a pass?

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

Easy. They are not mutually exclusive?

How many TP Link routers, were found to be compromised by China and had to be removed from U.S. infrastructure?

Salt Typhoon hack?

Why does China restrict access to the internet without massive censure?

Your link just takes me back to your parent comment.

Your entire argument is the pot calling the kettle black.

If you were just discussing the shitty things the U.S. is doing, I would be in total agreement, but you are trying to shoehorn "How great China is" into the discussion.

No matter how terrible the U.S. is and gets, it will not erase all the terrible things China has and is doing too. No matter how much you argue otherwise.

[–] theacharnian@lemmy.ca 1 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

The link works for me. What can I tell you, I'm literally debating shitty Chinese policies with user "stumu415" on a different sub thread here. Search for the string "IAGS" in the comments under this post. I'm tired trying to convince you I'm not an elephant when you continuously make bad faith assumptions and miscaracterise what I'm saying.

Edit: if you're denying the existence of mass incarceration system in the US (aka the carcéral state) you're denying reality and absolutely giving the US a pass.

[–] stumu415@lemmy.zip 2 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Actually this. Thank you. But unfortunately on the web you can not express anything positive or even neutral about China. Even though most have never set foot in China. If they would especially now most countries can travel visa free to China, it will change their mind. But that goes against the western propaganda.

China is an amazing country with beautiful nature, great people, amazing food, infrastructure Americans can only dream of, and millenia of history.

Plus China don't starts illegal wars with other countries, impacting people all over the world.

[–] theacharnian@lemmy.ca 1 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

To be clear, I am not denying those accusations against China. The Uighur genocide is recognized by the International Association of Genocide Scholars; one cannot cite the IAGS on Gaza and ignore it on Xinjiang. The mass surveillance is also real, the censorship around the Tienanmen massacre is silly Orwellian, and the strangulation of Hong Kong democracy is lamentable. The atrocious working conditions and the iron disciplining of labour is also all too real (I've had multiple discussions with Chinese people who bragged about how there are no strikes in China.)

I was only trying to be fair and balanced, because as Westerners we are too often giving ourselves a pass: 1) China is a net positive for the green transition due to solar, at a time when the US is going full fossil fascist. And 2) it is a pole of stability internationally, in ways that the trumpist US and Israel-enabling EU have not been.

Edit: typos and such

[–] stumu415@lemmy.zip 1 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Partially agree with you but a lot of things you raised are the same in western countries. It's also refreshing to read sensible commentary. The mass surveillance is the same in other countries including the US, but not as obvious as in China. The cameras work as a deterrent. I can leave my phone and laptop outside in the park or café and don't need to worry about it being stolen. Censorship is a real thing all over the world especially now in the US with whitewashing of history. Even on US controlled platforms like Reddit, you get perma banned if you are critical of the Trump administration.

And I'm sure the history books in the US do not go in depth about the treatment of tge native Americans and how they were almost eradicated.

The same in Europe. In the Netherlands the history books never mention the atrocities the VOC did in regards to slave trade and colonies.

I don't agree about the working conditions. I travel all over China and deal with different businesses. Things are definitely improving. But at least the workers have workers protections and social security and health care.

I have both lived and worked in the US and China and prefer living in China.

Let's get the downvotes started

[–] theacharnian@lemmy.ca 2 points 5 days ago

Things being bad or somewhat bad on the West is irrelevant in a discussion about whatever China is doing. One of the most infuriating things we Canadians say is the phrase "at least we're not as bad as the US". Fuck that.

If mass surveillance is unacceptable in the West, it's also unacceptable in China. No ifs and buts. That western surveillance is primarily commercial and secondarily political, whereas is China it's the other way around doesn't mean any of the two is ok.

And no, censorship is not the same everywhere, that's just false. We don't all hide our history and of course free speech is part of the fight for that.

That's I guess my biggest suspicion with China as well, especially when it comes to labour. In China labour issues as seen as something for the state to manage through official unions. And I don't buy the whole-process democracy thing. It's too cooptive, too "harmonious". Not buying.

[–] Corporal_Punishment@feddit.uk 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (3 children)

Last I checked the USA wasnt forcing (yet) god knows how many Muslims into reeducation camps.

But yes I agree they're sliding into the depths of authoritarianism.

[–] blackbeans@lemmy.zip 3 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

The USA has its own issues. It has relatively high inequality compared to other civilized countries. Discrimination against black Americans is still present. And the USA is a prison country, one in every 150 Americans is in prison right now, a number 5-10 times higher than European countries and also higher than China.

[–] theacharnian@lemmy.ca 15 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I was talking about the US carceral state, i.e., the inhumane American exception from the global norm that is considered "normal" in the US. The US system is slightly more intelligent than blanketly imprisoning a population. No. First the US marginalizes and impoverishes them, then over-polices them, then finds little justifications to label them criminals, then does the imprisonment. That this is entirely normalized and nuanced and cast as complex in a country that considers itself "a city on the hill" or whatever bullshit, is irrelevant. If China had Hollywood and good copaganda TV shows, they would have also convinced the world that their carceral system is normal.

[–] Tarambor@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago (1 children)

The world has quickly disregarded the fact they only a couple of months ago they noisily and publicly executed 10s of thousands of protesters.

Wasn't 10,000s if you're referring to Iran. Maybe stop watching Fox News.

[–] Corporal_Punishment@feddit.uk 6 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

3000 admitted to by the Iranian government which is a disgrace no matter how you want to swing it

7000 named and verified by HRANA with another 17,000 under investigation https://www.iranintl.com/en/202602021839.

Over 30,000 based on eye witness testimony from doctors, morgue and cemetery workers and other witnesses.

Thats from the Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2026/jan/27/iran-protests-death-toll-disappeared-bodies-mass-burials-30000-dead

So no, nothing to do with Fox News. Maybe stop trying to defend a murderous regime eh?

[–] marxismtomorrow@lemmy.today 5 points 1 week ago (2 children)

HRANA is quite literally a CIA-Backed NGO btw. You fell for it again.

[–] Corporal_Punishment@feddit.uk 6 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

Whatever you say mate.

Just casually ignore everything else, including the 3000+ murders the government admits to

[–] sartalon@lemmy.world 0 points 6 days ago

Don't waste your time talking to tankies

At least this one gives it away with his name. Usually their simping for China gives them away.

They only accept their little cesspit of information as facts. Everything else is conspiracy theories or state funded propaganda.

[–] marxismtomorrow@lemmy.today 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Hardly murders when the CIA has already admitted to trying to instigate another colour revolution and has been consistently trying to do so for the last 60 years.

Maybe don't try to rise up and overthrow your government when over 70% of the people approve of your government over western liberal democracy?

Maybe don't take AKs to your local riot when less than .001% of your neighborhood, much less country is participating in the riot?

Maybe, like all organic revolutions, organize and get popular support before attempting to rise up instead of accepting CIA funding and weaponry to do Israel's bidding?

Yeah, it sucks Mossad had agents in Iran, and it sucks they were able to get the most disenfranchised people to essentially kill themselves using the government as a weapon. We should condemn the US and Israel's role in this.

But maybe the Iranian people, and this will be a shock to someone like you who openly posts CIA propaganda, DON'T WANT WHITE PEOPLE'S HELP.

[–] Corporal_Punishment@feddit.uk -2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Yawn.

I'm assuming you are off to live in the utopian theocractic paradise of Iran then?

[–] marxismtomorrow@lemmy.today 10 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

It is amazing how simplistic your world view is; truly it is impressive how little you seem to care to expand your knowledge or world view.

A place being different does not mean you need to ride in on your high horse and foment chaos and destruction in the vague hope they'll be more amicable to your corporate masters.

Especially being on a .uk domain you should know that YOUR COUNTRY IS THE SOLE REASON IRAN IS A THEOCRATIC REPUBLIC. The sole reason. The literal only one.

If you people would have just accepted not having them as a colonial resource state with a puppet regime and allowed them to nationalize their resources instead of letting BP continue to rape their land and air while paying them next to nothing, YOU WOULD HAVE HAD A WESTERN LIBERAL DEMOCRACY IN IRAN STILL.

But no, despite having a stable and developing Iran, you people decided it would be less harmful to install a monarchy and then when that didn't work you people decided to do another revolution except oops, you failed and now it's a theocratic republic.

If Western powers had left Iran alone to develop into socialism, yes the UK would be poorer, yes Israel would have actual threats in the region, and yes the oil market in the 1970s would have been even more anti-western than it was; but Iran would be a beacon of democratic socialism on par with Norway.

BUT YOU PEOPLE DIDN'T WANT THAT. Just like your criticisms now ring hollow as you advocate for civil war and revolution yet again despite knowing your false nonsense is the reason you criticize the current government.

You, being a citizen of the UK, US, or Israel have no moral high ground. You are much more immoral than any muslim theocrat in iran. You are worse than any terrorist.

[–] Corporal_Punishment@feddit.uk 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

None of this changes the fact that Iran just murdered thousands of people.

Lemme guess, you think Russia were justified in their invasion of Ukraine and Kim Jong Un is an alright guy.

[–] marxismtomorrow@lemmy.today -3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

It is a complete mystery how the western imperial mind works.

What does Iran defending itself against Israel have to do with Russia's Imperialism or North Korea's defense against the ongoing invasion by the US?

[–] Corporal_Punishment@feddit.uk 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Easy.

You don't believe Iran is a despitic theocratic regime capable of murdering thousands of its own citizens.

Its not a stretch to assume you believe Russia is on the right side of history as well.

Also, for some reason you think I support the american attacks. I dont. Like I wrote in my first post.

And somehow you think America's attacks mean Iran is innocent.

[–] marxismtomorrow@lemmy.today -4 points 1 week ago (2 children)

The American attacks were the protests, that's the point you're not understanding or refusing to acknowledge. They were not organic protests. I doubt most that participated were citizens, especially when 99% of the coverage was prewritten by NED-linked organizations.

Iran isn't despotic, the word you're looking for. If it were, then the American decapitation strikes would have ended Iran.

It didn't, because that's not what the country is. Its military isn't linear, there is no single person in charge of the military or the government. There never has been. They have watched the failures of nationstates like that.

Hence why the Iranian defensive strikes have happened no matter what 'leader' the US has designated as a leader and has killed. And they will continue until both the US and Israel are out of the region or they get security guarantees from the EU against the US and Israel.

Because there isn't a party in charge.

There isn't a person in charge.

There isn't a family in charge.

This isn't the UK.

This isn't the US.

This is a theocratic republic with decentralized authority and control; a set of guiding principles.

It's why Muslim women are completely free to do whatever with their hair in Tehran and Shiraz, but would be heavily punished for not wearing head coverings in Urmia.

There isn't a central authority. There isn't a single set of rules, much to the chagrin of the parliament who have tried to better unify and align the disparate laws.

If you can't get basic facts right because you have NO UNDERSTANDING OF THE SUBJECT MATTER, because you have NO ACTUAL LOCAL INFORMATION, because you ARE BRAINWASHED BY CIA PROPAGANDA THROUGH NED-OPERATED CIA FRONTS LIKE HRWNA, then you cannot possibly think you have any weight in your words when you incorrectly and plainly falsely throw around nonsense that you want others to take seriously.

This war should have shown you that NOTHING YOU THOUGHT ABOUT IRAN WAS CORRECT, and maybe you should question the sources that mislead you to your current beliefs. But instead you're doubling and tripling down on your owners' and masters' propaganda and pretending you have any possible idea of what's happening in the wider world.

Feel free to prove me wrong in any way, by the way, with any non-NED linked source. Literally any. If neither Mossad nor the CIA have touched the source I'll happily concede whatever point, or I'll point out the direct lineage between those groups and the source you post.

[–] Jax@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

The American attacks were the protests, that's the point you're not understanding or refusing to acknowledge. They were not organic protests. I doubt most that participated were citizens, especially when 99% of the coverage was prewritten by NED-linked organizations.

I've just been reading along this thread and I think this is the part I don't understand.

Is the idea here that the protests were Americans? I'm not sure I understand what you mean by 'The American attacks were the protests'.

Beyond that, if we accept strictly what Iran has released about the number of protestors killed it is still an incredible amount of violence for a two day period. The fact that the Iranian regime released the same number, 3117, for number of deaths on multiple different occasions regarding these protests is odd — it would indicate to me that the number is false and probably higher.

Simply trying to understand what your point is here — I don't necessarily disagree with most of what you've said. Specifically I agree with you that if we'd just left Iran alone things would have turned out much differently and much more positively for them.

[–] sartalon@lemmy.world 1 points 6 days ago

This guy would probably argue that the protest at Tiannamon Square was a CIA funded false flag operation. If he was allowed to even discuss it in a way that implied it really happened.

[–] marxismtomorrow@lemmy.today -2 points 1 week ago

Yes. I would look up the history of colour revolutions, the arab spring, and the CIA's and Mossad's extensive, ridiculously long involvement in generating these 'protests' as NED-Backed organizations call them. I would provide links but anytime I do they're called propaganda so I encourage you to find your own sources since all of this is declassified; and don't let 'declassified' fool you into 'they stopped doing it.'

The primary modus operandi is to find anyone in a country that opposes the current status quo and start feeding them propaganda, weapons, and money. Usually directly via agents already in place in that country. They then take the most disenfranchised people to start direct actions, with usually two prongs. 'peaceful' protests, i.e. a stripped down version of the extremist ideology they have started to foment that is more palatable to the general public with far less expansive goals, think the modern white-washed version of MLK's ideology compared to Malcom X's.

The playbook is then to radicalize larger and larger portions of the mediocre population into the militant population; so that when violence is triggered (usually by getting the radicalized population to instigate violence as we saw in Tienanmen Square) to provoke a response.

If the government does not respond with force, the movement grows more bold until it does, or until all foreign assets are arrested (why hong kong did not turn into a Tienanmen).

If the government does respond with force, this is greatly exaggerated internationally via NED-backed propaganda organizations, all of which either don't care to investigate the actual cause, or are explicitly directed to ignore the actual cause: violence from extremists against the general public and/or government.

If this all sounds vaguely like what the US government says Al Qaeda does................................................ I'll let you draw your own conclusions with the hint that projection is the most common form of fascist propaganda.

[–] Corporal_Punishment@feddit.uk 4 points 1 week ago (2 children)

The new ruler is literally the son of the old one.

Everything else you wrote is nonsense. I'm bored of you.

[–] voaw@lemmy.world -1 points 6 days ago

Love that your ultimate response to any argument is "I'm bored of you" because you can't bother to try to inform yourself and are simply pretending to know all about world affairs by going off vibes 🙄

[–] marxismtomorrow@lemmy.today -3 points 1 week ago

Are you talking about the spiritual leader who has as much influence as the Pope does in the US?

[–] aaa999@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

this dude found out that the moon landing was an american public relations operation and concluded that the moon must not be real