this post was submitted on 22 Jan 2025
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I mean like:

  • Chinese (Edit: Mandarin Chinese) will become the lingua franca of the world
  • The Internation Aviation Language will (probably) become Chinese (replacing Aviation English)
  • Lunar New year becomes a popular holiday (like Chrismas is currently popular worldwide)
  • The Internet will use mostly Chinese Chracter
  • And instead of 26 Latin based characters, you'll have to learn thousands of characters, imagine that 😅 (or just use a translator tool 🤷‍♂️)
  • There would be a China version of Hollywood, taking over the original Hollywood
  • Fengshui becomes a thing that the world starts to care about
  • UN Headquarters now located in Shanghai (I'm guessing this is the most "international" city in China, right?)
  • Boeing is dead, some Chinese airplane manufacturer now dominates, competing with Airbus.
  • Baidu is default search engine (now with less censorship due to democrarization)
  • Harmony OS (Huawei's Android fork) become the new "Apple", iPhone is now insignificant, ranking below Motorola in terms of market share.
  • Either Windows get brought by some Chinese Bussiness person, or there China makes a Linux distribution that starts off as Open Source with some proprietary components (like how Android is), then eventually becoming Closed Source once they overtake Windows. Lets call it PandaOS (I'm not creative with names 'mmkay)
  • etc...

Sounds like an interesting world 🤔

What do you think?

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[–] weeeeum@lemmy.world 3 points 11 hours ago

I'd be too worried about the CCP backsliding, but if it theoritycally collapsed, and the ROC swooped in to take its place, then yeah I'd be fine with it. Better than Trump's america

[–] mojofrododojo@lemmy.world 7 points 19 hours ago

I think your premise - If China becomes democratic - is a really, really big IF.

But hey if they can show us a better way and use their resources to help the world, go nuts. A true 1:1 democracy would be fascinating to see implemented.

[–] LNSS@lemmy.world 7 points 22 hours ago

I'd rather have multipolarity.

[–] stoy@lemmy.zip 0 points 12 hours ago

Me being OK with a specific nation as superpower had zero impact on weather or not that nation becomes a superpower or not.

There should never be a global super power. Ever.

[–] boiledham@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago

Not really, the same issues that plague the world right now will still exist, just stemming from a different entity

[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Is hexbear leaking or something?

Yeah, no, the Chinese government should not be in charge of China, less so of the world.

I don't want to have a camera tracking my every movement and lose social points every time I make a misstep. I don't want to just disappear when I say something the government doesn't agree with.

Having said that, Fuck pooh bear

I specifically said "If China becomes democratic"... 🙄

I guess all the downvotes is from people that somehow missed it... 🤦‍♂️

(And yes, fuck lemmygrad, fuck hexbear, fuck CCP, dictatorship is bad regardless of country)

[–] schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de 6 points 1 day ago

Linguistically, I want neither English but Chinese, but an auxiliary language to be the lingua franca. I already know Esperanto, so this would be a good candidate as far as I'm concerned. There's no way I'm learning Chinese.

I want to see as much nonfree closed source software replaced by FOSS as possible, no matter who makes it.

The others (pop culture, companies) wouldn't bother me much at all. But I don't think Christmas would stop being popular at least in Europe.

[–] Wahots@pawb.social 13 points 1 day ago

No. Even if they dramatically changed on all fronts, became a democracy, promoted LGBT+ and racial civil rights, broke up their concentration camps, stopped surveiling citizens, gave people true elections, and stopped cracking down on political opponents, their nation is facing an extremely serious gender and population imbalance, one that will have drastic impacts on their society and stability in the next 30 years. A large portion of their workforce is going to retire and cannot be sustained by the smaller population that are kids and teens now. There's also a severe gender imbalance from the One Child Policy favoring boys over girls. There's no getting off that train, and shit like incel culture and a ton of retirees causes bad political instability. Or wars, to distract from problems at home, like what Russia is doing.

It's going to be a massive problem since they don't have much in the way of immigration, and even if they got a ton of people pregnant now, they are still facing down a 10+ year deficit of people.

Hell, the only reason why we aren't in the same boat is that we didn't implement boneheaded policies like that, and immigration helps offset our birthrate being below the replacement rate of people. We depend on immigrants as much as they depend on us.

[–] HurlingDurling@lemmy.world -2 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

When you refer to becoming democratic, you mean like how it has been until a couple of years ago? Or, are you referring to China suddenly becoming Capitalist instead of Communist?

[–] IDKWhatUsernametoPutHereLolol@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 18 hours ago (2 children)

Or, are you referring to China suddenly becoming Capitalist instead of Communist?

China is already capitalist. By "Democratic" I mean as in Liberal Democracy.

[–] HurlingDurling@lemmy.world 1 points 8 hours ago

Ah, gotcha. I understand democratic by the direct definition, not an implied meaning. Thanks for explaining it.

[–] DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 1 points 12 hours ago

So they can turn fascist again?

Why?

[–] RBWells@lemmy.world 11 points 1 day ago

This reads more like "do you care if Chinese culture becomes popular and dominant" and I am not sure. Except for the language (which I don't think I could learn before I die) I don't care, the music is good, movies, dance. And China and India are both so populous it would make logical sense to me that one might be the trend-setting culture.

But politically I think it more likely that the US finds its way back to democracy, than China finding its way there.

[–] guy@piefed.social 35 points 2 days ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (9 children)

I don't care which country is the global super power as long as it adhere to the liberal world order and all that comes with it.
I want to leave in peace, enjoy my human rights and not have to worry about other countries using arms to push their will.

But also: a lot of those points have nothing to do with who the global super power is

Appendix: maybe I was vague but my answer is that as long as the super power follows the rule-based order (as it is supposed to be obviously) it doesn't matter who that super power is. China, Russia, USA, Albania, the Vatican, Congo, w/e.
Understand that might does not make right and follow the same rules as the lesser states and I'm happy.

[–] novibe@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 day ago (4 children)

Hummm the “liberal world order” is 100% “countries” using arms to push their will. Countries being “the west”.

And YOU having “human rights” is not really dependent on the “liberal world order”. Most of your rights were won by blood and tears during the late 1800s and early 1900s, through popular movements mostly ideologically aligned first with anarchism then with communism.

Also, the vast majority of the world not having human rights and being colonized and exploited IS your “liberal world order”.

So not really sure how you specifically benefit from western imperialism, unless you are a billionaire ofc. Which I highly doubt.

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[–] jumjummy@lemmy.world 23 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Depends on whether or not China shifts demographically as well. They’re currently too xenophobic and monocultural. Look at most western developed country and you’ll see quite a bit of diversity. I don’t think you’ll ever have a global superpower that is so set on race or where you were born.

China is definitely not immigration friendly.

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[–] recreationalcatheter@lemm.ee 15 points 2 days ago (4 children)
  1. China already is a superpower

  2. There can be more than one superpower

They mean global hegemon. China isn't that.

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[–] whaleross@lemmy.world 16 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (3 children)

If China becomes democratic it is no longer China anywhere as we know it. The agenda is still, AFAIK, that the totalitarian regime is necessary for another undisclosed amount of time with the end goal to transition into full communism.

The problem is of course that the party elite quite enjoy this position they are in and are in no hurry for any societal transitions in any direction whatsoever.

So, in my mind, your question is at best some imaginary world building for a fictional scenario that has no connection with reality.

[–] meep_launcher@lemm.ee 5 points 2 days ago

I think the point was to have it as a mental exercise. Personally I'd be fine with it. My main issue with China is the entire genocidal surveillance ethnostate with little to no civil liberties and full restricted speech. If it opened up to allow criticism of the government, protests, protection of LGBTQ folks and legal marriage, I'd be more on board.

But yes, that's not the China we see today and likely never going to see in our lifetimes.

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[–] NeoNachtwaechter@lemmy.world 20 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

You are wildly overestimating what "democratic" means.

Or maybe you mean more, but the term "democratic" does not contain that. Think about Russia, India, Philippines... they are democratic too, but that has very different meanings there.

So, before I am OK with China, they would also need many other major changes besides a democracy.

[–] GreenKnight23@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

no.

why?

because democracies don't work in a world devoid of consequences against the rich and powerful.

[–] LNSS@lemmy.world 2 points 22 hours ago

Yeah I've grown pretty dissillusioned in democracy. Seems like a system where the loudest, richest, and most obnoxious rule.

[–] AceFuzzLord@lemm.ee 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I wouldn't have a problem with any actually democratic country being a superpower since I've always lived in a democratic superpower. Though it's flawed and not the greatest, it sure as Hell would beat growing up in an authoritarian superpower.

As for the things listed, I wouldn't mind the whole Chinese becoming the defacto world language considering I could probably learn it and if not, translation tools are better than ever before in most cases. I wouldn't mind Chinese Hollywood so long as they were making quality animated films (which is way more than possible for them currently, just look at films like Legend of Hei and Big Fish and Begonia). Fengshui as a spiritual practice I can't get behind personally, but have no problems with.

Got no complaints about where UN headquarters would be moved to in this hypothetical so long as it's not an authoritarian country. I don't mind Lunar New Year becoming a major holiday since it's fairly harmless as a concept (just don't go blowing yourself up with firecrackers somehow). So long as the safety and privacy measures are roughly the same and I'm not being uber spied on, don't really care who has control of business manufacturing, no authoritarian country though.

Knowing Baidu, without the government requirement to censor, they'd become the new gøøgle in this hypothetical world, so you wouldn't catch me directly using it. Don't have enough info on harmony to make a statement about it since I usually just use budget samsun phones with their android tweaks. As for windows/Linux, there are already whole entire Linux distros (like Deepin) that may be forks of one of the big distros but are their own thing. But knowing me, I'd still stick with whatever Linux I am using at the time, so little to no impact for me there.

All in all, I don't have a problem in this hypothetical. But that's something we're pretty far away from ever becoming a reality, though.

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[–] PM_ME_VINTAGE_30S@lemmy.sdf.org 11 points 2 days ago

No because we can and ought to have a world without global superpowers and states overall.

Computer drawing of a crowd of protesters flying black flags and carrying a banner that says "For a world without capitalism \ For a society without states"

[–] Vanth@reddthat.com 13 points 2 days ago (2 children)

When you say "Chinese" becomes lingua franca, do you mean Mandarin? Cantonese? Yue? Hakka? Other? If Mandarin, do you mean Jilu? Jiaolio? Other?

I don't think "Chinese" or any sinitic language ever becomes the global language. Translation is becoming so simple, I would expect any new global initiative can work in 3-4 languages simultaneously.

UN headquarters relocating - I think it would be more likely the UN collapses and is replaced by something else with China leading.

The Chinese movie industry is already huge, we just don't see much of it in the US.

Lots of Chinese people aren't into fengshui. That's kind of a bizarre stereotype for you to pick out of everything mentioned.

The aerospace industry in China has a ways to go before they can be classified in the same tier as Airbus. They are getting better, but still heavily rely on borrowing designs instead of creating their own.

Baidu, HarmonyOS, a computer OS - fine by me to add more options.

What I actually hope is the idea of a single global superpower dies completely. It's not even the current reality for the US; it's just propaganda.

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[–] HootinNHollerin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 2 days ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

While I’d support china going democratic 100% my experience of working and traveling in china makes me pretty certain it’s not happening in my lifetime. Obedience has been brutally beaten into Chinese citizens for so long it would take a long time to change that

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[–] psx_crab@lemmy.zip 9 points 2 days ago

In an alternate universe where Britain didn't went and colonise countries, US is so weak they got wrecked and conquered by Japan in ww2, and China become a democratic country at the end of ww2, then yeah i guess i wouldn't mind because it didn't matter.

In current universe? None of that will happen, even if a political party suddenly campaign against CCP and CCP suddenly got voted out next election. English doesn't became a lingua franca overnight.

[–] flamingo_pinyata@sopuli.xyz 9 points 2 days ago (1 children)

The only issue I see with your plan is keeping the Chinese writing system. Alphabets are superior, even if you write Chinese with them.

Otherwise as long as my ideas about how the world should function get put into practice, I don't care who does it. By chance of history US was the one who brought quite a few good ideas into the world, mostly in the second half of the 20th century. But there's nothing fundamentally American about having good ideas.

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[–] Nemo@slrpnk.net 8 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Democracy without the rest of Enlightenment Liberalism is just another kind of of tyranny.

E: typo

[–] IDKWhatUsernametoPutHereLolol@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 2 days ago (1 children)

South Korea President Yoon has joined the chat

[–] bluGill@fedia.io 7 points 2 days ago

Former you mean. Well he might technically be president, I don't follow close enough to know the exact status, but he is politically dead in the country and there is just process left to formalize it.

Which is how it should work. People abusing power is a given. If it isn't happening where you live than either you are ignorant of the truth (perhaps because you overall support what the abuser is doing and so choose to ignore small signs); or you are afraid of what would happen if you talked about abuse.

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