Comment by Intralexical

I think some number of them are probably just legitimately psychopaths living in the West. Though maybe they latch onto the term after hearing it as a PRC talking point. If you genuinely can't imagine mutually beneficial positive relationships based on consent, then it's only natural that seeing the US work together with so many other countries would be scary and look like "US & vassals".

"A billion people" and "thousands year old civilization" are also Chinese talking points I've noticed. Hence why I included it in my comment, to both call out the really degrading "vassals" narrative and also point out these dictatorships aren't as special as they like to pretend.