this post was submitted on 06 Mar 2026
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You do realize you're using anecdotes to dismiss China, but don't tolerate anecdotes that counter that? It's almost like you already made up your mind.
Go and read sources, check how most Chinese people consider their government democratic according to western NGOs (so you can't blame the government for bias/meddling), same as with Vietnam, and how low western liberal democracies score in the same reports. Check statistics of the insane material harm that Japan and western regimes did to these countries, and how they still recovered, how China lifted 800 million out of poverty, how their lives keep getting better day after day while most people in our countries infrastructure is crumbling down. Or how most Chinese people own their homes, while most of us can only hope to own a house if we come from wealth or got enough support and luck to end with a very well paid job (and a mortgage that we'll pay for years to come).
I lived in China mate.
It felt like living anywhere else. I saw poverty daily but I lived a good life with other middle class people. People love their families, pray for more money and love a good drink. They praise the government when a new train station is built, but everyone in my district wasn't happy because we were below the river that the government had arbitrarily decided divided which buildings were given permits to be built with heating and which weren't, so we froze in winter.
I loved my electric scooter, I nearly died every day on the roads. The best meals I ever had were at the Buddhist temple where everything was vegetarian. You paid if you could so those who couldn't could have a free meal.
I've also never seen so many elderly people forced to work to avoid hunger and homelessness. From the bicycle parking attendants to the elderly couple who lived in a partition in my buildings garage.
Every country has lifted people out of poverty over the last 100 years. Do you really think Chinese people don't pay for their houses?
Don't confuse my criticism of China with an endorsement of America or capitalism. Just a counterbalance to the delusion I see in these threads.