Well here's a differing perspective, and I'll say it's at least anecdotal. My friend is a Chinese-American scholar and she said though it's taboo to talk about it, much of China is still Buddhist internally. They will seek any alternative before war. I don't know how much of that is true, but there are surprisingly few direct engagements in war in their history for as old as they are.
I'm actually from China. No, China is not Buddhist internally, most of us are secular. She doesn’t know what she's talking about, either that, or she thinks of China as some kind of Oriental country reminiscent of European countries from the past. Does she also think most Chinese practice kung fu too?
China has been embroiled in war throughout the entirety of its history. Why do you think there were so many dynasties? So many civil wars? Even in recent history China has invaded Vietnam and threatens to invade Taiwan at this very moment, and terrorizes the Fillipinos.
Let me tell you this: the CCP only sits in the back to save face and profit, just like they are doing with the Russian Ukraine war. If they can make themselves look better, then they will. They do not do anything of their own goodwill, it is all in the nation's interest, whether it be ferrying military equipment from North Korea so that the Russians can bomb Ukraine, or run tanks over innocent protestors. Or spread propaganda about Taiwan and Japan so that the anti Japanese hate will rise even more.
You could just argue they got all their aggression and killing out of the way early.
Not much reason to go to war when you have every piece of useful land for a thousand miles and you're borders are mountains, deserts, jungles, tundra and the Pacific ocean.
they've been in two wars in living memory, and one of them they were attacked, and the other was a civil war. compare that to the other great powers of the world, which are the eu, the us, and russia and I think you will see my point.
I see your point, which minimizes millions dead in the civil war and tens of millions in the communist party actively murdering large swathes of its own society.
you clearly have a very biased "understanding" of history. for example, the civil war had about 2 million casualties not 2 million deaths. very different.
Yes, that's the number for soldiers. Which is a) still millionS and b) doesn't count civilians who died as a result either. It's an interesting bias that doesn't care about civilian deaths as a result of war.
"Yes, that's the number for soldiers. Which is a) still millionS and"
not millions of dead like you claimed...
"doesn't count civilians who died as a result either"
traditionally that is how deaths from war are counted yes. if we count deaths caused by the war indirectly Israel has killed over 200k Palestinians(~10% of the population) and america killed over 2 million Iraqis, with a total of over 6 million deaths in the entire Middle East from its war on terror.
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u/Mr_friend_ Oct 02 '24
Well here's a differing perspective, and I'll say it's at least anecdotal. My friend is a Chinese-American scholar and she said though it's taboo to talk about it, much of China is still Buddhist internally. They will seek any alternative before war. I don't know how much of that is true, but there are surprisingly few direct engagements in war in their history for as old as they are.