A "stressful" writing | On the strength of the country

My high school classmate, a middle-class living in Shanghai, forwarded the junk text (video) of "the vice chairman of the Taiwan Kuomintang suddenly spoke out! Shocked both sides of the Taiwan Strait!" in the WeChat Moments, and commented:

China is the only country that has grown strong without colonizing and plundering other countries.

I was very angry after seeing it, and immediately left a message:

Internal colonization and plundering have always been the basic national policies of your country.

I know the topic is sensitive, and the WeChat platform is not the place to talk, so I went to WhatsApp to complain with my friends. The content is organized as follows:

The Surkel who liked was also my high school classmate, and their ignorance — or selective blindness — made me angry. They are better than me. They are all smart people. Of course it is not accurate to say that they are ignorant, but why is their understanding of international politics so low?

The remarks of the classmates are not worth refuting, but I will take the opportunity to comment on the writing during practice, and give me a few points of my own opinion:

1) "colonization" and "plunder" are historical terms with limited practical significance;

2) No country grows strong through colonization and plunder - the opposite is possible. The reasons why the country has become strong are very complicated. I am not a political science major, and I have no ability to talk about it. I just think that advanced systems and culture are the fundamental guarantee for a strong country;

3) Is China really powerful? By the standards of my classmates, is North Korea also strong? Forty years of reform and opening up have indeed accumulated some wealth. The country seems to be strong, but the people are still kneeling. What is the use of such "power"?