Hacker News Reader

Look at the world from a different point of view, and you would understand that corruption is everywhere, not just in China. Some people are just better at hiding it.

> corruption is everywhere, not just in China

If the famous US corruption cases, like Flint, have taught me anything, it's that corruption in US is on much lower level than in countries like Russia or China, and people and media are much, much less tolerant to it.

Basically, Flint scandal could never happen in Russia because no one would ever give a fuck.

Corruption in Russia and China are a matter of policy. They are bold-faced and completely open about it. Corruption certainly exists in the US, but it is much less overt and much less common.

There is significant precedence in the US of politicians being caught in the act and prosecuted as a manner of policy, rather than the sacrificial examples in RU and CH where it is more about politics and/or making an example of someone. Just look up the lists of American Federal/State/Local politicians convicted of crimes, there are a number of lists on Wikipedia.

> Corruption in Russia and China are a matter of policy. They are bold-faced and completely open about it.

From my personal experience, you're mistaken: the corruption is not a matter of policy. Rather, the policy is a matter of corruption.

Flint is pretty damn low on the charts in terms of US corruption.

Well, saying you'd prefer one government over another isn't the same as the preferred government doesn't have flaws.

I don't think you need to look at the US from a different point of view to understand that it has corruption. Just browse comments on one of the more popular Reddit subreddits and the top comments are regularly about politicians supposedly not taking their constituents ' interests to heart.

Yes, a thug that has to spend all of its military money defending other countries..so they can throw it back in their face that they don't spend as much on the military.

Without the US, the world would be fucked.

Gotta love that American exceptionalism.

I wonder what people did before the US existed? I imagine they were all hurtling towards some political, moral and cultural black hole.

Doubtful. Our little wars cost us too much. China already has the second most powerful economy in the world, and they've greatly increased military spending.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/05/asia/china-military-spending/

Comparing nominal dollars spent on the world's militaries is a totally flawed analysis of their capabilities with respect to each other.

No where did I provide an analysis of their capabilities. I simply stated that they are the second largest economy in the world and they are greatly expanding their military. This would indicate that any military conflict would be costly, thus best avoided.

I'm sorry, but isn't this just bigotry?

Why is China a thug of a government?

non-elected dictatorship.

vs. heavily lobbied Congress that makes the real decisions. I build you a factory in your home town, you say yes to these heavy arms sales.

My point is that the line between democracy and autocracy is quite thin in reality.

That's on you then, elect some better ones. That thin line is the demos.

Yep, that's the beauty of it. The choice is yours, so choose wisely. If you're not satisfied, wait until the next election and choose someone else.

I'm from Tunisia, so I can appreciate how it feels to successfully transition from an autocracy to a democracy.

In 2014, Congress had a ~5% approval rating, and a 95% re-election rating.

"Kick the bastards out" works well in some democracies, and less well in others.

This is an admonishment of the American public more than anything. Apathy is rampant among most people.

The members are elected from factions within the CPC. It's like having parties within a main party.

Also the CPC is open to anyone who wants to join (provided they are Chinese).

Not exactly western 'democracy' (multiple parties elected into power using republican means), but it is similar.

Not that the US is a true democracy either (more republic). The Swiss are the closest thing out there to a true democracy.

Its like a mix of democratic meritocracy.

I can appreciate readers seeing scorn in this, but I would advise studying the Chinese system in more detail before jumping to rash conclusions on what it is.

If the farce of the Democratic Party leader nomination is any indication of democracy in the US then you're in for a big disappointment -- the winners and losers are hand-picked there as well.

How more retarded can a comment be? - From the article, how could you have intelligently drawn the conclusion that "Chinese thug of government"? Off the thin air? The territory, is at most, as described by the western media, "disputed", while in my opinion, it's simply part of China. Comparing this to the shameless invasion of Iraq, by this logic, U.S. is way much much more a "thug" of a government. (No, I'm just illustrating the logic of the comment, not endorsing this conclusion). - And if a government is a "thug", then it's nothing of "misery" sort, let alone "to be put out of". - And, if not that obvious already, this has nothing to do with democracy. So talking about that simply makes no sense.

"The US government is a thug" isn't an argument that the Chinese government isn't a thug.

It's quite possible to think they're both thugs.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com