114
votes
Accepted
Why is "president for life" in China such a big deal?
Putin is de facto leader for more than 3 mandates (not much big difference from "for life") and I do not remember to be illustrated so harshly
Consider revisiting your news sources somewhat. There ...
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83
votes
Accepted
Why does PRC devalue its currency on purpose, but Turkey is worried about the devaluation of its currency?
Trade surplus/deficit
Devaluing one's currency means mostly one thing: It becomes more expensive to import products from abroad, while one's own products become comparably cheaper to buy on the world ...
- 67.4k
81
votes
What will happen if China stops loaning money to the U.S.?
There are some assumptions being made by this question that don't reflect how the international economic order works.
Countries do not ever have to pay off all of their debt
A nation's finances are ...
- 9,955
79
votes
Accepted
Why didn't Thatcher give Hong Kong to Taiwan?
Other than the reasons of practicality mentioned, there is also the issue of international laws and treaties, specifically on the issue of "successor states." There definitely was some debate, as the ...
- 786
79
votes
Why is China interested in supporting the Taliban?
One reason is that China is investing a significant amount in trying to build a land corridor through Pakistan to access ports in the Indian ocean as part of their belt and road initiative.
China is ...
- 7,374
71
votes
Why does China have so few nuclear weapons?
"Only 250"?
That's plenty for their purposes. Nukes are meant to be seen, not heard. Even if the US could intercept 99/100 missiles, having 250 means china can deliver a devastating enough attack ...
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70
votes
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Can I (a random person in the world) be prosecuted under the new Hong Kong security law?
How far applicable the law of a country is is decided by the law of that country. If other countries disagree, they can obviously decline to assist in the enforcement of those laws, and disallow the ...
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69
votes
Why is the lab leak theory such a big deal?
The question about why would random, unidentified people make the difference seems to be off-topic here. AFAICT, civil defense protocols make no difference depending on the origin of bio hazard. ...
- 13.9k
68
votes
Why is the United States voluntarily funding the World Health Organization 60 times more than China?
Partial frame challenge if you like. Fox News has chosen an interesting year to highlight. As you can see, US voluntary contributions have varied a lot; only $112 million in 2011 (and similar in 2014) ...
- 105k
68
votes
Accepted
Why is China regulating religion?
I would take a somewhat less cynical view than @JamesK, who frames the matter as a Machiavellian motivated action in his answer, rather than as a legitimate ideological stance and policy with ...
- 52.9k
68
votes
Accepted
Why are the United States government as well as many others supporting Taiwanese sovereignty despite its own anti secession laws?
I'm from Taiwan, so I'll answer with some local perspective.
There is a law on the books that says if Taiwan does not bend
diplomatically they will try to make it part of China by force.
The first ...
- 4,270
59
votes
Could China's actions in Xinjiang be classified as genocide?
Genocide Defined
The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (the international law defining the crime of genocide) says that genocide is:
In the present Convention, ...
- 23.3k
58
votes
Why is China regulating religion?
The Church is a source of authority other than the Communist Party of China. One of the basic principles of the PRC, even as it moves from war to peace and from Cultural Revolution to Xi Jinping ...
- 92.7k
57
votes
Why must Chinese maps be obfuscated?
Just to clarify, this isn't at all like the GPS Selective Availability case where bits were unavailable unless you knew the key. The Chinese don't have their own GPS satellites (duh) setting these ...
- 105k
57
votes
Accepted
Why is China interested in Socotra Rock?
The Chinese government has spent the last decade and more very actively pursuing the extension of their territorial waters into what is commonly accepted to be international waters, or even the ...
- 2,834
55
votes
Accepted
Have the US or Chinese governments indicated a point at which they would invade North Korea?
But where exactly is the line North Korea must cross?
Line setting is generally acknowledged as a bad idea. For example, Barack Obama set a red line in Syria about chemical weapons. Then they used ...
- 88k
55
votes
What are the objectives of the TikTok ban?
TikTok doesn't take just your location data, it also takes your clipboard. Everything you copy/paste while TikTok is open, even if it's only open in the background, is sent to their servers. So ...
- 7,406
54
votes
Would Taiwan and China's dispute be solved if Taiwan gave up being the Republic of China?
No, dropping the ROC name makes the situation worse as the PRC claims that China is indivisible and that the island of Taiwan is part of China. Hence, the usual threat is that they will launch an ...
- 983
54
votes
Has any country's government concluded they need more decentralization to fight Covid-19 or future pandemics?
Arguably, the United States of America has. Sort of. It's confusing.
The federal government, or rather the president and some of his cabinet, has largely left the response up to individual states. It'...
- 4,206
54
votes
What is the significance of Sec. Pompeo's labeling of China's treatment of the Uighurs as "genocide"?
The USA has signed (in 1948) and ratified (in 1988) the UN Convention on Genocide - one of the founding declarations of the UN in 1948.
The convention commits its signatories to the following ...
- 7,374
53
votes
Accepted
Why did China target Australia for economic sanctions?
It's because they previously saw Australia as a weak link in the Western democratic alliance, and are not happy that they are now firmly siding with the U.S. and other Five Eyes.
Australia has long ...
- 1,966
51
votes
Why is China primarily targeting the Uyghurs with their internment camps?
The question you added in comments I think is more specifically interesting; We mostly know why the CCP does what it does in Xinjiang (GC Campbell comment), but following that logic, it would do the ...
- 904
51
votes
Accepted
Are fair elections the only possible incentive for governments to work in the interest of their people (for example, in the case of China)?
The CCP is in a strange position. They are nominally Communist, but they've largely jettisoned its economic prescriptions (because they don't work). They're a one-party state (more or less ...
50
votes
Why are Trump supporters flying the flag of East Turkestan?
If you're referring to this (light blue flag on the left):
Then yes, that is the East Turkistan flag, and is likely being flown by people trying to draw attention to the oppression of Uighurs by the ...
- 53.8k
49
votes
Accepted
Why has China chosen the Chengdu consulate specifically to be closed down?
The US had five(now four) consulates in China: Chengdu, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Shenyang, Wuhan. The United States also has an embassy in Beijing. They all have their own consular/embassy district, just ...
- 1,502
48
votes
Why is "president for life" in China such a big deal?
There will be others wanting power in China. If the President has a 10 year maximum term then those others can hope to gain power keeping out of trouble, biding their time, building networks of ...
- 92.7k
46
votes
Accepted
How could China have extradited people for political reason under the extradition law it wanted to pass in Hong Kong?
It's true there is a clause stating extradition from Hong Kong to China cannot be based on political motives. However, there are worries the Chinese government would fabricate charges just to get ...
- 1,101
46
votes
What are the objectives of the TikTok ban?
An article in Wired took a look at this a few weeks ago. By and large, the experts agree with your assessment that TikTok in particular poses no special security risk and that a ban is not justified. ...
- 13.7k
42
votes
Why is the lab leak theory such a big deal?
One reason that I have read is that if a laboratory leak is proven then it will show that the risks of gain-of-function research far outweigh the potential benefits, and that will result in ...
- 737
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