Posted on 08/28/2019 7:11:42 PM PDT by MarvinStinson
'They’ve done a lot of things for their people'
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) declared that communist China has done more to alleviate poverty than any country in history during a Tuesday appearance on HILL TV’s Rising.
Granting that it is unfortunate that China is "moving" toward authoritarianism instead of democratic governance, the presidential candidate argued its record on poverty is the best in the world.
"China is a country that is moving, unfortunately, in a more authoritarian way in a number of directions," Sanders said. "But what we have to say about China in fairness to China and its leadership is, if I’m not mistaken, they have made more progress in addressing extreme poverty than any country in the history of civilization. So they’ve done a lot of things for their people."
Sanders had just finished denouncing "far-right authoritarian leaders" such as President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, both elected leaders of liberal democratic nations, when he was asked about China at the 10:27 mark of the episode. HILL TV host Krystal Ball asked Sanders about his prior statement that normalizing trade relations with China would be devastating for America.
"Their economy now is struggling but I think it is absolutely possible for us to have a positive working relationship with China," Sanders said. He argued the problem with Chinese trade is that it benefits the wealthy too much, since companies can outsource labor to China where wages are lower.
He did not address how China’s communist government has oppressed religious people and minorities, putting at least one million Uighur Muslims in concentration camps while instituting one of the most comprehensive surveillance states in history. In China, the Communist Party requires all religions to pledge ultimate loyalty to President Xi Jinping, who is atop a one-party system that does not allow political opposition.
While Sanders did say trade with China is potentially bad for workers because of labor competition, he did not address China's violations of trade rules, such as intellectual property theft. As a socialist, Sanders has been a vocal opponent of free trade for decades.
But Sanders said he would "take a stand" against the Communist Party’s designs for Hong Kong, a former province of the British Empire that is now part of China but has special status.
"You gotta make a very strong statement that we in the United States—this is certainly not the case with Donald Trump—but historically at least, and under a Bernie Sanders presidency, we stand for democracy and we stand for human rights and we will do everything that we can to prevent oppressive governments from forcefully denying people their democratic rights."
Hongkongers have freedoms not enjoyed on the mainland, but the police have brutally suppressed recent protests, and many are concerned China will use the military to put down political dissent in the city.
Living standards in China are inferior to those of its democratic neighbors Japan and South Korea, but their economy has grown in recent years as it has instituted more capitalist structures in its economy. Contrary to what Sanders said, it has not been "moving" toward authoritarian government, but rather has long had it. Its founding leader Mao Zedong was responsible for an estimated 35-45 million deaths in the 20th century, and even after he died, political dissent was suppressed repeatedly, most notably at Tiananmen Square.
In China, information is rigidly controlled regarding topics such as Tiananmen and Mao’s Cultural Revolution.
Demonrats ARE Communist totalitarians.
Well, he looks like Larry David’s crack-addicted stunt double.
No, he considers that a benefit and a goal.
China has been authoritarian all along, it’s not moving toward it.
Such an important point.
If the U. S. hadn’t gone all in, China would still be 50-75 years in the past on almost everything.
Very few of it’s citizens would have crawled out of poverty either.
Sanders is a dumb ass. Here’s another point.
China is using Capitalism to better it’s bottom line.
Hear that Bernie? NOT SOCIALISM!!!
I was gonna say, right Bernie, you butt head; Mao was only responsible for about 45 MILLION DEATHS during his Great Leap Forward.
And starving or otherwise murdering another 45 to 100 MILLION people.
Generally speaking current US policy is to try to keep Russia and China trapped in a so-called ‘Middle income trap’.
For Russia the program is active for about 15 years and for China has just started.
I might understand why it is getting done to China because the latter abused US economy for so long but it is worth mentioning that all of it happened under invitation from US and now such a cold shower. It might produce some really bad blood with a billion people who are mostly pro-American despite their regime.
As for Russia I have no idea what justifies the policy. It is not on recent history when it did something wrong to US or took advantage of it.
This guy is nuts. Goodbye, Insane, Bernie Sanders...your mind is gone!!! Go, Trumpie!!!
“I know a lot of chinese who have escaped from china. They tell a different story than his.”
If Sanders truly believes this nonsense, I’ll be happy to take him to a few places in China where he can see reality. First a visit to a Chinese factory where underage peasant girls live eight to a small dormitory room and work 10 hours a day, often six days a week for less than a dollar a day. He might enjoy seeing the factory floor where armed guards walk the aisles. We can step outside where poor people wash their clothes and bathe in the river where the factory dumps untreated effluent containing toxic chemicals. If he cares to talk to one of the 14 year old female workers he will find she considers herself as trapped any African slave on a pre Civil War American plantation. He will learn all of her earnings are sent home to her parents in a rural village to keep them from starving.
Next we go to her parents village several hundred miles away where the peasant farmers do back breaking work in the rice paddies and fields. Old women are permanently stooped over from years of bending over in the fields. The poor live in huts with dirt floors and no running water. If they are extremely fortunate they might have electricity and even a radio. Unlike the government subsidized poor of American urban centers there are no cell phones, few televisions, no welfare payments or housing and food subsidies. State single payer medical care is rudimentary. Any American poor person on government paid Medicaid has access to 21st century medical technology unavailable to Chinese living in poverty. Forget being a fourth or fifth generation poor person living on the dole in China. If you are able bodied and don’t work, you die. There are very few obese people in China living in poverty.
Freedom of expression and independent thought. Doesn’t exist for most Chinese and certainly not the poor. Higher education? Almost any poor person in the US who can pass the admissions requirements can find a government or private scholarship program to attend college. Need based programs to fund higher education are plentiful in the US. An extremely bright Chinese child living in extreme poverty has virtually no chance to attend college.
If Bernie believes what he says about China he is naive and doesn’t have the intelligence or reasoning capability to serve as president. If he knows the truth and is simply lying for political purposes he can’t be trusted to faithfully uphold the Constitution. Either way, he is unqualified.
N just where and from whom does he imagine the Chinese learned how to take people out of poverty?
yes if you consider murdering people does make them no longer countable as ‘poor’
Bernie is a communist asslicker who advocates “moving” toward authoritarianism to destroy american rights and freedoms.
Yet again we see Bernie “Braindead Communist” Sanders cheering the murder of millions through Communism as a good thing, while disparaging our Country. As always, he has a case of permanent Diarrhea Of The Mouth. And also the main spokesman for the Allowing his Alligator Mouth to override his Hummingbird Rear End Club!!!!
Correct, but they've moved from purely communist authoritarians to a more fascist model. A one party rule by racist han supremacists who are both uber-nationalists, but also currently invading the sudeten-sea. But they do permit a little private ownership.
Bernie is a gd'd idiot.
Anything China did they did with American money.
And they can thank President Richard Nixon for creating the opportunity.
You have to break 50 million eggs to make an omelet.
The west handed it to them on sliver platter and is de industrializing. This will not end well, for the west.
GMTA.
Best,
L
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