[starbugstk]

RE: Study : Unfavorable view of China goes up in developed countries

This is not surprising as developed nations are by definition countries that benefited from the existing world order so I doubt their folks will see too kindly a challenger that seems to differ in characteristic from them.

What is noteworthy though is despite having such a strong support from the voters to tackle China aggressively, most of these nations seem to do nothing besides periodically making verbal and symbolic gestures. In fact many have tightened and continue to tighten their trade and investment relationship with China. Case in point - Korea, their population dislike China, their president is supposedly the most anti-China leader ever and yet....

This suggests that there is a significant divergence in opinion between the popular masses and the elite ruling class of these countries. It remains to be seen how long the elites in these places can continue to hoodwink the masses by sloganeering and photo-opping.

Not all wars are fought because the laobaixing wish it.

There are Russians - the common/ordinary people - who just want a simple life, going about selling goods, perhaps running a restaurant, or repairing computers, cars and so on.  The invasion of Ukraine is not their war; it's Putin's war.  Many Russians are not in favour of it, asking...why would I want to shoot down the Ukrainians?  They are my brothers!

I can say the same for the many wars fought in the history of China. If you could ask the people who had died in the war, or later through the natural process of aging and death, who lived in the Tang, Song, Ming Dynasties....ask those common folks, did they ask for war or not, and I am quite sure their reply would be "The Emperor ordered it."

War is declared by the victor on the loser, but sometimes, the war is won by the prey.  Whoever wins takes over the rule, and the common people become its subjects.

This is why we should not and never hold grudges against the Japanese people, even though unmentionable atrocities were committed by the Japanese army, undoubtedly with the tacit concurrence of the Japanese Emperor.  Even if the Japanese PM does not apologise, so be it.

This is why we should not treat the Chinese as enemies just because of Winnie.  The CCP and the Chinese people are two different things altogether.

This is why whatever we may think of Trump, Nancy or Biden, we should not have the same views about the ordinary Americans.

The disconnect between those in power and the masses is a given in any society.

...cont'd

I wish to add that Singapore's success story is due, inter alia, to the ability of the government to deal with the "disconnect".

If Singapore comes under the rule of a rogue government...one which is corrupt, incompetent, talks about rape cases or tells people to take lies to the cemetery or do a 成何体统 and a magic hat trick (takes client's money and vanishes), the disconnect would be very cham lor.

It's our blessings that we have had two good PMs, and a current one who is just as good, with another promising one on the way. 

....cont'd

I wish to urge all those reading my post...VOTE WISELY.

Vote for PAP, and give Lawrence Wong a strong mandate.

Once upon a time, we spoke about globalisation.  Fancy words like "Global village, knowledge based economy, then knowledge economy" were fashionable.  The US and China were friends, the EU were friends with anything which moved, and everybody in Europe loved the EU till the British decided that Brexit was the way to go...

Now, the whole world is turning inwards, and becoming protectionist.  Let's not forget the one thing which had ever happened in our very own lifetime for a good example of this...when we had to eat cheekon rice made with frozen cheekon.  In deep and troubled waters, and when there is only one float, it will not be given to us.  Malaysian abang dan adek..........it's BS.  In times of food shortages, I telk you lar....we die is our own funeral hor.

Do not play tikam tikam in the next GE.  This is not a time to vote for more LIARS into Parliament.  We do not need rape dramas or graveyard advice.  We need a competent, honest and "connected" leadership.  Vote for PAP.  No need to thank me.  

Thanks for reverting by quoting my post, but I must say I'm not really sure what you are trying to put across here and how this has got to do with the ongoing discussion? 

Seems to me you are stating that those in power and their actions do not represent the laobaixing and that's that. This is tautologically true, but like all tautologies this leads to a dead end in discussion. Not sure what can be further followed up from this? 

The rest of your posts calling for support of Lawrence Wong also don't seem to have much to do with either the thread topic or ongoing discussion...

Hahahaaa .... chow ah gua got annihilated with fewer words than his whole lot of garbage.