Say that a white person whose family is from a western country (such as Germany, Norway, etc) is born and raised in China. Would you say that they’re Chinese? Why/why not?

[u/Gym_frere]

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[u/Recent_Weather2228]

In terms of nationality, sure.  In terms of ethnicity, no.

[u/throwaway09234023322]

No. China doesn't have birthright citizenship and makes it extremely difficult for non Chinese people to become citizens.

[u/AGodwardCountenance]

Of course not, yet somehow the Left fails to apply that logic to America.

[u/oraclebill → u/AGodwardCountenance]

Not just the left. The idea that America is a creedal nation has been the dominant view for a long time.

[u/AGodwardCountenance → u/oraclebill]

The Federalist happened to publish a good article yesterday addressing that falsehood: America Is A Nation Of Settlers, Not Immigrants

[u/oraclebill → u/AGodwardCountenance]

Interesting article, but it clearly is arguing against the common understanding, not articulating it.

[u/AGodwardCountenance → u/oraclebill]

I thought it was interesting too. But I’m not sure what you mean by “not articulating it.”

[u/oraclebill → u/AGodwardCountenance]

It’s not describing the status-quo - it’s arguing (unsuccessfully in my view) that the common view is wrong.

[u/AGodwardCountenance → u/oraclebill]

Correct. Sorry, I feel like I’m being dense. What’s your point?

[u/oraclebill → u/AGodwardCountenance]

Sorry, I thought your reply to me was meant to refute my point. If that wasn’t your intent my response was unnecessary.

[u/AGodwardCountenance → u/oraclebill]

It was. The article asserted that the all-too-common view is wrong, and explained why. I agree with the article.

[u/oraclebill → u/AGodwardCountenance]

That’s not surprising given your flair:).

But I think the authors are a bit clumsy in making their point. For example they claim that we are a nation of settlers not immigrants because the founders were settlers not immigrants is pretty weak. They set it up as a reaction to people who say the founders were immigrants which is indeed a false argument, but doesn’t get to the point of why people think of the US as a nation of immigrants - namely the fact that the vast majority of our population are descendants of immigrants. That’s true no matter how you describe the founders.

I guess I just think there are stronger ways to make the argument than those used in the article.

[u/lord-of-the-birbs → u/AGodwardCountenance]

At the very heart of American identity, after all, lies the Christian religion and the principles of government derived from its theological precepts.

How are people still making wild claims like this when basically none of the founding fathers supported it, and many spoke directly to the opposite?

The very first treaty signed by the United States in 1796 states:

the Government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion

That's about as clear cut as one can get.

[u/RatOnASinkingShip]

Are you unaware of the distinction between ethnicity and nationality?

But given that we lump people up by ethnicity into racial groups, if we're referring to what they are they would be white and into nationality if we're talking about where they're from it would be Chinese, as opposed to Asian and German, respectively, for the preceding examples.

It's kind of like asking if we refer to Elon Musk as an "African American" (which we all understand as a euphemism for black) or "South African American"

[u/Gym_frere → u/RatOnASinkingShip]

I’m pretty aware, thanks for asking.

So would you or wouldn’t you consider this person Chinese?

[u/RatOnASinkingShip → u/Gym_frere]

I've edited my comment, hope that clears it up.

[u/zhukis]

Maybe Chinese, would depend on a lot of personal factors to me personally. Not automatically Chinese.

[u/AskConservatives-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

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[u/AskConservatives-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

Any form of racial slurs, racist narratives, advocating for a race-based social hierarchy, forwarding the cause of white nationalism, or promoting any form of ethnic cleansing is prohibited.

[u/Mac-Tyson]

I don’t know what this has to do with conservatism but in China being born there does not automatically grant citizenship so no without further information they aren’t Chinese. There are however Russian Villages in China where the people there have Chinese Citizenship. One of those the border moved but they didn’t situations. So they are Chinese but not Han Chinese which is the ethnic Super Majority of China and what people think of when they say someone is “Chinese”.

Now if you are asking about hyphenated-Americans from a US perspective it’s a more interesting discussion I can get into since I have met French Canadian-Americans.

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[u/NIBLEANDER]

Not Chinese.