I was disappointed to read (Chapter 8)

The most disappointing and slightly infuriating part of this weeks reading was by far about the Tribute System that existed within China and its bordering neighbors. To learn that the Chinese viewed those who bordered around them as barbarians who wanted to steal China's wealth was a little ridiculous in my opinion. That was until I read about its northern neighbor strong arming China into basically monetary protection. To learn that this was happening in different parts of China with different bordering neighbors was rather shocking and infuriating. Those who were extorting China quickly learned that they would get much more out of China by extortion than they would via conquering the country. These are just terrible morals to live by and its quite annoying to know that this took place at a time where peace and prosperity could have reigned over all. I must admit, these acts kind of reflect on current day China in my opinion. I do think China was done wrong at this time, but I also feel like that they may have taken lessons learned from being extorted, and they kind of do similar things to this very day. Below is an image of how the Tribute Systems physically made deals. 

For example, the United States is currently changing trade laws with China that would cause China to lose significant amounts of money. Add this to the pandemic and continued abuse by police offers on the American citizens, and welcome to the current state of the world. Trade tensions with China are currently at an all time high. Now I must say these new trade laws do not come unwarranted. For example China based coffee company, Luckin Coffee, recently was caught fabricating income statements. This company was on the major US stock exchanges, and cost Americans millions if not billions of dollars for the fabrication, while they simply stayed in China with no consequences. To me this kind of reflects what bordering societies did to China during the Han Dynasty and Tang Dynasty. Essentially the bordering neighbors and Luckin Coffee did the same things. Both stole goods or assets and really took advantage of those they targeted. The neighboring societies strategically planned to slowly bleed China of their assets. Luckin Coffee blatantly lied about income and grew their investors over time, only to come crashing down once their faulty balance sheets came out. This was extremely disappointing to read and just to think about. It seems to me as if China indeed learn a lesson from their ancient bordering neighbors. Another example I have of China using the frowned upon tactics of their ancient bordering societies, is how they treat Taiwan. Taiwan is treated like China's younger step brother, in my opinion.. Taiwan doesn't get the recognition it deserves in so many different sectors of the world, due to China overshadowing them and really almost censoring them in a way. With everything going on in the world, I hope all countries learn a thing or two about humanity and I hope that we continue to get better as a civilization rather than make the same mistakes year in and year out.