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That's a very weird take. China absolutely has free will and it is using it to advance its national interests. One of those national interests is national defense. Defense against whom, we might ask? Defense against Zimbabwe? No. Defense against Denmark? No. Defense against Uruguay? No. China's national defense posture is specifically shaped based on the threats it faces from the Western empire and its vassals.

Is that a lack of free will or is it an acknowledgement of the reality of the power structure of the world. It is absolutely true that the US truncates the national self direction of other nations. Every nation on earth would rather spend its efforts and wealth on making life better for itself. But instead, the US went and dropped two nukes in civilian cities and then carpet bombed and napalmed a handful of Asian nations and killed millions of people and made them suffer for generations from the after effects of nuclear and chemical warfare. So now everyone that the US treats as an adversary essentially has no choice but to establish sufficient military deterrence and defensive capabilities to prevent the US from flattening their country, killing their people, and stealing all of their resources.

If you were a relationship counselor and told China to just not worry about the USA, you'd have to deal with the guilt when the USA murdered your client. You don't tell the victim of abuse to just not respond to threats of violence. Victims of abuse and facing threats of violence must act to protect themselves or they have a very high likelihood to end up dead. This is not an abdication of self determination but an assertion of it.

The fact that you can't see that is very bizarre. It's almost as if you cannot acknowledge that China has legitimate national security concerns and therefore it should follow all international laws like a good little world citizen and not worry so much about the fact that the US has spent 20+ years planning attacks and putting capabilities into positions specifically to counter Chinese defenses.

From an external perspective in the US, I agree with you - US residents are the most propagandized people in the world and they can't imagine that China would ever do any of what it's doing because of the real legitimate threat of violence from the US. But outside the US and the white supremacists here and in the EU, most people would see this conversation and think "wow. Archangel really does not understand what's going in the world"