To treat any country as a unified rational actor is to fall back into the trap of traditional International Relations (IR) realism, the billiard ball model of geopolitics. This framework assumes the state operates with a single, calculating mind, which fundamentally erases the messy reality of class conflict, economic interests, and elite factionalism that actually drive a nation's foreign policy.
On the other hand, painting a targeted state as a heroic, unified monolith actually mirrors the historical error of indigenismo (a current of thought in early 20th century Latin America). Just as indigenismo romanticized indigenous populations as a single, homogenous bloc, treating any country as a monolith replaces actual political agency with a romanticized nationalist (and yes, anti-imperialist) aesthetic. It denies such a country the reality of their own internal contradictions.
Agency can be found in the internal class and factional struggles over how the state should respond to the current US-led empire. (And with response, I do not mean just "reactions" but also "construction.")
The Chinese Martyrs’ Memorial in Xieng Khouang
Among the list of Chinese martyrs who died from US airstrikes in Laos:
Gao Yunpeng, aged 27
Fan Changyun, aged 23
Li Zhixue, aged 40
Lu Weihan, aged 39
The base of the pillar was decorated with marble reliefs of wartime scenes
Imagine a video claiming China demolishing a Uyghur Muslim mosque.
it actually shows Indonesians demolishing a theme park – nothing to do with China or Uyghurs
A theme park building...like Disneyland they create propaganda fantasies
#China#CounterPointGlobal#Uyghur s
Went to the Piew Cave massacre site, where 374 Lao men, women, and children seeking refuge in a cave were killed from a single blast by US forces on November 24th, 1968