>>64156185
It's probably part of it, but I also think they just have a different relationship to animals in terms of the cultural / philosophical background. It's a little different in Asian societies. More like, here's the human world, and over there is the animal world. Humans vs. non-humans. In Western societies, it's like there's a gradient of some animals that are closer to humans than others, like dogs. It's a hierarchy with God at the top, then angels, then humans, then dogs and cats or dolphins, then other animals, then plants.
I have an older Thai neighbor (nice guy, very chill), and the city opened up a dog park nearby, and so I would walk my dog over there and see him out tending to his garden, and he was like "why is the city spending all this money on dogs, how about people?" But it's really about people if you think about it. People with their dogs get outdoors and they socialize there.
>>64156937
The Chinese government has been pushing Westfalen narratives internally for awhile, but I'm not actually sure what they're thinking now, but I've heard listening some think-tank types, close party watchers etc. that the idea that the U.S. isn't going anywhere might have started to sink in with them, but they haven't quite figured out how to adjust to it.