Ok, to use American parlance, we expected them to play ball on an even field. Of course pols/biz were blinded by the big $$ in their eyes and could not see beyond that, but the expectation with was that the legacy of Deng and Hu would continue to soften the CCP and eventually become (economic) "partners" of some sort. Maybe not completely an open democracy but also definitely not the more authoritarian swerve it's taken over the last 10 years or so.

> eventually become (economic) "partners" of some sort

Is China not an economic partner of the USA? I thought the huge amount of trade between the two countries made it a foregone conclusion.

And the idea that america props up dictators or topples regimes because “it wants their oil” is a bedtime story for jaded American teenagers who don’t know any better. If that was true American foreign policy would look a lot different (and wouldn’t be such a money sink). Where’s all that Iraqi oil money again?

U.S. foreign policy is aimed at maintaining stability and facilitating liberal capitalist democracy. We don’t regard popular movements that are communist or theocratic as “democracy” so we’re willing to support dictators to forestall that. But at the same time our foreign policy is fundamentally ideological in nature.

>And the idea that america props up dictators or topples regimes because “it wants their oil”

It would be more productive if you addressed my comment, and not some comment you just made up.

As for this:

>U.S. foreign policy is aimed at maintaining stability and facilitating liberal capitalist democracy

I believe that you believe this. But I'm not treating it as an axiom, so you'll have to give evidence for it.

Stability is a euphemism for a government supporting economic arrangements favoring western corporations.

https://chomsky.info/fateful02/

"Liberal capitalist democracy" - this is obvious nonsense when you list out all of the regime changes forced on the countries by the United States.

Like the economic arrangements that allowed Japan, then Korea and China to displace entire American industries?

Like the coups that USA conducts to remove democracy to install dictatorships.

Most Americans have absurd views of American foreign policy because of ignorance. But, given your Bangladeshi origin, in your case it is not ignorance. You are just volunteering as an unpaid American propagandist or random social media forums, even though you are well aware of all the CIA coups all over the world.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1973_Chilean_coup_d%27%C3%A9ta...

> And the idea that america props up dictators or topples regimes because “it wants their oil” is a bedtime story

This is true, sometimes all they want to do is shore up some bananas. Or just help out West Pakistan to impress China.

https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/countries...