China has upset many countries in the Asia-Pacific region with its release of a new official map that lays claim to most of the South China Sea, as well as to contested parts of India and Russia, and official objections continue to mount. What is the map, and why is it upsetting people so much?
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It seems significant, then, that Beijing chose to release the map on the heels of a late August meeting of the BRICS nations — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – and just before China is to participate in top-level meetings of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the Group of 20 rich and developing nations.
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In releasing the map now, Beijing is widely seen as signaling it has no intention of backing down on any of its claims and is making sure that its positions are fresh in the minds of other countries in the region.
You should learn about something called free press and specifically the consequences on the societies that have that compared to others. It doesn’t immunize a population against propaganda, but its effects are much more tame. Also free press also means that you can have main stream media that goes against the government’s narrative. This is just not possible everywhere.
Of course we are bombarded by American culture, but science and investigative journalism still exists and where I live, we don’t lock people up for having “bad” beliefs or for simply investigating and sharing ideas.