Lemmy Shitpost @lemmy.world NONE @lemmy.world 3d ago

It really is like this

I mean... I kinda get it, but nowadays it's starting to get absurd.

(EDIT: This was supposed to be a "blow air out my nose and get on with my life" meme...)

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I think China would have to do a lot more for the avg person before they could be considered socialist or communist again

Within the last five years China completely eliminated the worst category of poverty in their borders. I'd say they are currently actively engaged in doing a lot more for the average person than most countries.
- You could say the same about every developed nation. It took a bit more for most nations, but these nations had to literally invent concepts like public health and education, welfare and even socialism.
  
  But yeah, every western European country has already eliminated the worst kind of poverty and on average European citizens are better off than Chinese citizens. Working conditions, working hours and safety laws in Europe are much better than the Chinese average.
  
  The US is doing its own thing with extreme capitalism, and I'm against that, but let's not kid ourselves, China has taken a lot of pages from the US's economic model
  
  You could say the same about every developed nation
  
  "Developed nation" is a propaganda term designed to make you think that the overexploited nations of the world are on some mythical path that will lead them to a first world quality of life.
  
  every western European country has already eliminated the worst kind of poverty and on average European citizens are better off than Chinese citizens
  
  This is an apples-to-oranges comparison. Europe is the beneficiary of hundreds of years of imperialism and accumulation and the ongoing system of global unequal exchange, whereas China is a former victim of said imperialism that has pulled themselves out of the muck with their own workers' labor. China is better off compared to India, which achieved independence not long afterward but has fallen far behind in every single development index because of their failure to overthrow capital.
  
  European workers didn't get their rights from being imperialist, they fought hard against the imperialist elites to get where they are now, and China's elites are being just as imperialist today as any European or American elite has been since forever.
  
  China and India is apples to oranges. There are a myriad of reasons why their paths diverged. There are other East Asian countries that did better than China way before China, while starting from a much more similar point (or even a worse point).
  
  Brother 90% of the world's labor is done by 50% of the countries, and it aint fukken Europe that's doing the hard work to keep the global economy running.
  
  And please point to any example of Chinese imperialism that has occurred in the last forty years. No, offering loans with better terms than what the IMF offers to African countries does not count.
  
  Nine dash line
  
  China continuing to claim the same seas that it has been claiming since the 19th century is imperialism, not the country from the other side of the world using legal warfare and gunboat diplomacy to deny them that claim
  
  whatever you say bud
  
  Wasn't china in the 19th century a literal empire?
- If you can take the Chinese Government for their word. Which I can't
  
  https://press.un.org/en/2019/sgsm19779.doc.htm
  Helping 800 Million People Escape Poverty Was Greatest Such Effort in History, Says Secretary-General, on Seventieth Anniversary of China’s Founding
  
  https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2022/04/01/lifting-800-million-people-out-of-poverty-new-report-looks-at-lessons-from-china-s-experience
  Lifting 800 Million People Out of Poverty – New Report Looks at Lessons from China’s Experience
  
  Do you take the Chinese citizens at theirs?
  
  We find that first, since the start of the survey in 2003, Chinese citizen satisfaction with government has increased virtually across the board. From the impact of broad national policies to the conduct of local town officials, Chinese citizens rate the government as more capable and effective than ever before. Interestingly, more marginalized groups in poorer, inland regions are actually comparatively more likely to report increases in satisfaction. Second, the attitudes of Chinese citizens appear to respond (both positively and negatively) to real changes in their material well-being, which suggests that support could be undermined by the twin challenges of declining economic growth and a deteriorating natural environment.
  
  Very few governments on this planet have approval numbers this good, and even fewer have numbers this good when it's a neutral third party conducting the surveys.
  
  I'm sorry but a dictator for life is a dealbreaker.
  
  I'll admit that a truly dedicated and benevolent dictator could run a good society, there are a few examples in the past too.
  
  But it's going to collapse once daddy dies like every dictatorship.
  
  What makes you think Xi is a dictator? If your answer is "because that's the vibe I get from American Government propaganda", then you should reassess the things you think you know about the world. The truth is that China has a very vibrant and active democracy that is much more responsive to the demands of its people than that of most other nations, and Xi is merely the one currently at the top of that democratic system.

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