While the Chinese Communist Party has long implemented a colonial-paternalist mode of governance over Tibetans and Uyghurs, there is a curious phenomenon of a notable segment of the far left in the United States (US) defending it under the guise of anti-imperialism. This phenomenon needs unpacking. The article identifies how contemporary China is a colonizing state using paternalist vocabulary and highlights a few prominent US far leftists who deny or advocate Chinese colonialism. This hypocrisy is not a result of speaking truth to power but siding with a colonizing, paternalist, and authoritarian state against those suffering under it; it is pro-colonial while claiming to be anti-colonial.
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Dibyesh Anand (2026) studied this question.
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