China has upset many countries in the Asia-Pacific region with its release of a new official map that lays claim to most of the South China Sea, as well as to contested parts of India and Russia, and official objections continue to mount. What is the map, and why is it upsetting people so much?

It seems significant, then, that Beijing chose to release the map on the heels of a late August meeting of the BRICS nations — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – and just before China is to participate in top-level meetings of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the Group of 20 rich and developing nations.

In releasing the map now, Beijing is widely seen as signaling it has no intention of backing down on any of its claims and is making sure that its positions are fresh in the minds of other countries in the region.

  • JohnDClay@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    By the way, the memes thread on hexbear from yesterday is a prime example of using whataboutism/America bad to justify North Korea China and Russia. That’s what my knee jerk reaction was against.

    • TokenBoomer@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I’m gonna guess that most of them have never been to Russia or North Korea. How are you gonna defend a place you know nothing about? That’s why I reserve judgement for other countries. I know America.

      • JohnDClay@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        Good question. Some of them were saying they think it’s impossible for a communist country to be authoritarian because of how communism works. So that automatically makes North Korea and China better than the US.

        Anyway, if you’re not defederated with them, you might want to check it out. The thread is like two back in my comment history if you want to check.

        Edit: Here it is, .world is defederated. https://hexbear.net/post/488404