The Soviet Union was functionally a Russian empire. It centralized power around its imperial core, refusing to exist in a coequal federation with the other member states. It’s why it fell apart and why Putin sees its collapse as such a tragedy.
China is imperialist without even considering Taiwan. They violate the sovereignty of all their neighbors in the same ways Chinese empires have done historically. They embrace social conservatism in their moves to take rights from women and suppress queer people. They play into nationalism more every year, not because they’re a smol beans, but because they’re embracing increasingly fascist strategies with the rest of the world. It doesn’t make them unique, it makes them no different from the rest.
Assuming ideology trumps geopolitical “realism” is naive. Ideology is a inconvenient but necessary tool for building power in hierarchical systems.
The Soviet Union was functionally a Russian empire. It centralized power around its imperial core, refusing to exist in a coequal federation with the other member states. It’s why it fell apart and why Putin sees its collapse as such a tragedy.
China is imperialist without even considering Taiwan. They violate the sovereignty of all their neighbors in the same ways Chinese empires have done historically. They embrace social conservatism in their moves to take rights from women and suppress queer people. They play into nationalism more every year, not because they’re a smol beans, but because they’re embracing increasingly fascist strategies with the rest of the world. It doesn’t make them unique, it makes them no different from the rest.
Assuming ideology trumps geopolitical “realism” is naive. Ideology is a inconvenient but necessary tool for building power in hierarchical systems.