Quote Originally Posted by a completely inoffensive name View Post
For all the Opium Wars and spheres of influence that the West imparted on China, the West has more than repaid them with rampant consumerism and outsourcing driving China's 7% GDP growth year after year for two decades now.

You can generalize this argument to all of East Asia in fact to some degree. And throw in India as well. Sounds like the West is already cleaned most of the blood off their hands.
Now as for Africa.....that might be a bit more problematic.
That's the stupidest argument I've ever heard, and I've heard a lot, so... Congratulations.

Quote Originally Posted by Pannonian View Post
I'm referring to the example that you cited as an example of Britain's wrongdoing. Subsequent arguing to put Britain in the wrong regarding that example was symptomatic of the whole blame Britain tendency, which is to start with the conclusion of blaming Britain, then working backwards to find the argument, ignoring all evidence that might argue against it, even if the evidence might originate from more reliable sources than the philosophical arguments of someone who lives far away from the area being discussed. The worst part of that argument was the dismissal of primary sources from people on the spot, which were deemed insignificant against a theoretical argument that would take years to play out if it does at all. There are lots of arguments against the British in Hong Kong, using primary sources and on location. But the argument in this thread missed all of them completely, as it never had any interest in examining the subject matter, but only in finding an philosophical argument using scant sources that would result in the desired conclusion of finding the British in the wrong.

Here's an argument against the British in Hong Kong: the British colonials were racist and regarded the natives as inferiors. If you knew anything about that colony, you'd be able to make this argument. And if you knew anything more, you'd know there are further colours to that argument, and the British don't come out the worst from an examination of this argument.
For the third (and last) time, Hong Kong wasn't an example of British wrongdoings, it was an example that countries must respect international treaties even if those treaties weren't made by the current generation. Capisce?