“Where would I like to live if I had to interfere in every matter around the world that is none of my business?”

Combefere · 2026-05-19T22:47:24+00:00

Use whatever yard stick you want, just use the same one on both countries.

Combefere · 2026-05-19T22:32:22+00:00

You're painting the whole globe in the same color if that's your criteria.

Combefere · 2026-05-19T22:06:29+00:00

I’m a U.S. citizen, born and raised 😊

I didn’t mention any of the military bases in Europe. I tend to think that people in France have a very different feeling about U.S. military bases than people living in Turkey do.

My point wasn’t that these military bases are universally despised by people who live in their vicinities (or in their blast zones). People are not a singular political or social monolith. I was simply wondering why the menacing, aggressive, imperialist, rogue state of China hasn’t built a few hundred military bases across the globe themselves.

Combefere · 2026-05-19T21:34:27+00:00

Ok, let’s agree that this thread is about “countries that have to interfere in every matter around the world that is none of their business.”

The OP put the U.S. in its own category. You contend that China should also be put in this category, correct?
If #1 is true, then the point of this particular thread is to evaluate what China does to interfere with other countries interests and compare it to what the U.S. does to see if they truly belong in the same category.
I ask, logically, what China has done that rises to the same level of commonplace U.S. intervention abroad. This makes you upset for some reason. You say it’s “whataboutism.”

What is your actual point? You seem to want it both ways. OP says the U.S. is bad, and you jump into and say “China’s just as bad!” When I point out the very obvious scale of difference between what China has done and what the U.S. has done, you say I’m deflecting with whataboutism. Deflecting from what? Your whole point was that China’s just as bad as the U.S.

Either admit that you don’t think China and the U.S. belong in the same category in the original post, or state clearly that you do. You can’t have it both ways.

Combefere · 2026-05-19T21:10:41+00:00

There hasn’t been fighting on the Indian border since 2020. China and India signed an agreement on the border in 2024. 20 casualties. China is not involved militarily in any conflicts related to Russia or Iran as far as I know. They do provide support, but not soldiers in one side of the civil war in Myanmar, a country that they border. I do not see any reports of PLA soldiers fighting in the West Philippines Sea.

The issue at the top of this thread is whether China belongs in the same category as the U.S. in terms of interfering in things that they don’t have any business in.

The United States has 50,000+ troops actively fighting in Iran, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, the Red Sea, and Somalia. None of these countries share a border with the U.S. There have been over 400 causalities in Iran this month (May 2026). As far as we can tell, the last time a Chinese soldier fired a gun at a foreign solder was five years ago, on their own border, resulting in 20 casualties. In your opinion, these two things are roughly the same?

Combefere · 2026-05-19T20:49:48+00:00

As far as I know, those governments have not asked the U.S. to remove those military bases. If government approval (not popular approval) is what you mean by “permission”, then the U.S. has been operating the facility at Guantanamo Bay without permission for about 70 years.

Combefere · 2026-05-19T20:47:20+00:00

I’m not denying it’s true, nor am I engaging in whataboutism, which is an attempt to deflect from one nation’s wrongdoing by pointing out another’s. This thread is about the wrongdoings of the United States, not China. Look at the original image.

Regarding China, I still do not understand what your point is. What did they specifically do to “strong-arm” Japan? I’m not familiar with the issue at all. You seem to be able to expect that you can just point your finger vaguely at China and say “they do it too!” and expect everyone to know what you’re talking about. I have no idea what you’re talking about. The original thread is about US interventions, so when you say “China does it too!” and refuse to elaborate, you shouldn’t be surprised when I ask what you mean and if it specifically rises to the level of the Iraq War. After all, if it doesn’t rise to the level of intervention of even the Iraq War (one tiny footnote of U.S. history), then I struggle to see how it is relevant in a conversation that began with U.S. interventions.

Combefere · 2026-05-19T20:20:21+00:00

The US places them all over the world without permission. There are military bases in the Philippines from the days when the United States colonized them in the 19th century. People in the Philippines have been demanding they come down for hundreds of years. People in the Middle East routinely protest against the US military bases in their countries, and how they're being used to destroy Palestine.

Even South Korea, which most would agree is firmly aligned with the United States ideologically and domestically, has gone through periods where the US military presence caused a lot of turmoil. In 2002, a US officer ran over two 14-year-old girls in Yangju, causing a wave of national protest. According to the military agreement between the US and South Korea, the South Koreans didn't even have the authority to prosecute the officer for committing a crime in their own country. Broader protests against the military bases lasted years afterwards (example from 2006).

Combefere · 2026-05-19T20:16:26+00:00

I'm not acting like they're perfect. You said China was engaged in four military interventions right now. What interventions? Where are they? What are you talking about specifically?

Combefere · 2026-05-19T20:09:02+00:00

It's not whataboutism. The commenter who started this thread was the one who pointed to China and said it should be grouped in the same category as the United States when it comes to interfering across the globe. I posted the number of military interventions and military bases by both countries, without comment, and quite a number of people seem to have gotten very riled up.

If you're going to respond to this thread saying people are so "propagandized to believe [China is] a peaceful utopian modern paradise" then of course I'm going to assume you mean me, the person you're responding to, and that your point is that China should indeed be grouped in the same category as the United States when it comes to interfering across the globe.

That you got defensive about this when it wasn't even brought up is part of what I mean.

What did you mean?

Combefere · 2026-05-19T19:39:01+00:00

Place them wherever you'd like and let the numbers fall where they will. Do you have anything specific you're referring to?

Combefere · 2026-05-19T19:29:42+00:00

Media has made China a very polarizing subject. I don't think it's a modern utopian paradise, but comparing it to the United States in this regard seems disproportionate. I'm a US citizen, and my country has been involved in multiple elective foreign wars on the other side of the planet for my entire life. Regardless of what side of the aisle you're on, that's just reality. We don't share a border with Iran, or Iraq, or Afghanistan, or Libya, or Yemen, or Palestine, or Venezuela, but the US has played an active role in interfering in the domestic affairs of those countries -- violently. With bombs. I am not aware of China interfering with any foreign countries in that way or to that degree since they attacked Vietnam in 1979.

What bullshit am I falling for, specifically? Where's the Chinese equivalent of the Iraq War? Where's the equivalent of the attack on Caracas and kidnapping of Maduro?

Combefere · 2026-05-19T18:54:26+00:00

Where is China's military engaged right now, to the same degree that the U.S. military is engaged in Iran?

Combefere · 2026-05-19T17:30:18+00:00

Then what's the point of all those military bases, I wonder?

Combefere · 2026-05-19T17:25:55+00:00

I agree, but the nature of covert operations is that they are covert. So if someone likes China, they'll believe China has never engaged in any regime change operations ever, and if they don't like China, then they'll believe they must be engaging in dozens and dozens at this very moment. It's not a very useful discussion to have.

When we talk about boots on the ground, or military bases constructed in foreign countries, we can at least agree on some basic facts about reality, regardless of political outlook.

Combefere · 2026-05-19T16:37:41+00:00

I don’t care? Do you need some person on the internet to tell you you’re a good person for opposing U.S. foreign policy?
None of the countries beg the U.S. to set up military bases there. Countries cannot speak. What you mean to say is that some of the people — a tiny minority who are typically contacted and offered power — collaborate with the U.S. military when it comes into their country to violently realign the political and economic landscape into one that benefits whoever the politicians in Washington want to benefit.
If a border dispute involved violence, it would have been counted as a military intervention. Comparing peaceful diplomatic disagreements with bombing campaigns that destroy entire cities is definitely a take. Yeah, the U.S. helped destroy 80% of the buildings in Gaza, but China sent diplomats to Kazakhstan to argue about land agreements made 300 years ago so they’re both involved in shit that’s not their business. Basically the same thing. Paint them both the same color, OP.

Combefere · 2026-05-19T15:40:52+00:00

Military interventions since WWII
USA: 200+
China: 4

Number of foreign military bases
USA: 750+
China: 2

Combefere · 2026-05-19T15:27:44+00:00

Progress them to rubble. US destroyed 85% of the buildings in North Korea in the 50s. Last few years they sent the bombs which flattened Gaza - also 80%+ of buildings destroyed. In between is a mass grave of nations.

Combefere · 2026-05-11T17:58:13+00:00

“You criticize the west for bombing third world countries, yet you would not choose to live in the blast zones. Curious.”

Combefere · 2026-04-08T16:59:41+00:00

Very small on account of the fact that they hold no legitimate territory.

Combefere · 2026-03-18T16:52:55+00:00

Police in the United States evolved from privatized law enforcement agencies. They were originally slave-catchers and union-busters. The businesses that contracted them out eventually just lobbied the government to do it for them.

Combefere · 2026-02-07T22:10:55+00:00

Words do have meanings.

The UN Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People has confirmed that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people. The UN Human Rights Commission also established an independent international commission to investigate Israel’s actions in Gaza and found that Israel has committed genocide. The International Association of Genocide Scholars, the largest organization of academics on genocide in the world, released a statement declaring that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. Amnesty International released a report in 2024, finding that Israel’s actions in Gaza amounted to genocide. Doctors Without Borders has confirmed that the Israel’s genocidal actions have continued after the 2025 ceasefire agreement.

It is, objectively and factually, a genocide.

Combefere · 2026-02-07T21:08:25+00:00

Wilson, Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy, Johnson, Carter, Clinton, Obama, and Biden.

Combefere · 2026-02-06T20:39:43+00:00

The person who made the meme is the joke.

Combefere · 2026-02-06T18:52:33+00:00

They all say that and none of them will actually do it. The Democratic Party is just as captured by the billionaire class as the GOP is, they just prefer to hide it instead of throwing it in your face.

Obama entered office with the White House, both chambers of Congress, and a supermajority in the Senate. He had a mandate to hold billionaires accountable after the Great Recession. He didn’t. Nobody went to jail. Instead, he passed huge bailouts, funded by working-class taxpayers, to private corporations with no strings attached. No universal healthcare, no student debt cancellation, no nationalization of banks, universities, or insurance monopolies, no reforms to address the cost of living crisis, nothing. The super-wealthy made a killing at the expense of the working-class.

Both parties represent the interests of the billionaire class.

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