Democracy / State Capitalism?
Much credit to /u/bayarea415
- A China misinformation Megathread.
- Is modern day china communist? Is it staying true to communist values?, 2
- Is the CCP committed to communism?
- Is China a democracy?
- How does China’s political system work?
- Are capitalists allowed in the communist party? No, pic
- The Long Game and Its Contradictions
- 50% of the economy is in the socialist public sector and directly follows the plan (40% if you ignore the agricultural sector). 20 to 30% is inside the state capitalist sector, which is the sector partially or totally owned by domestic capitalists but run by the CPC or by local workers councils. The rest is made up of the small bourgeois ownership like in the NEP.
- The west views China as one big sweatshop, but the actual working hours aren't much more than anywhere else. The average for a migrant worker (most vulnerable to exploitation as they are traveling from the countryside) is 8.8 hours, little under an hour more than a typical working day. Labor strikes are rarely suppressed, and usually get the support of the PRC.
- Why do Chinese billionaires keep ending up in prison?
- Wages themselves are forced to rise in the private sector by the CPC (+16% every years, +400% since 1980) who force the capitalists to accept the presence of CPC chapters who represent the interest of the workers, increasing workers control even in the capitalist parts of the economy.
- The real wage (IE the wage adjusted for the prices you pay) has gone up 4x in the past 25 years, more than any other country. This is staggering considering it's the most populous country on the planet. The US real wage by comparison is lower in 2019 than it was in 1973.
- US Life expectancy peaked in 2015, is on the decline, and is now lower than in China.
- The workplace safety standards of China are better than in the capitalist countries of the West like in Australia who have an higher rate of work related death despite having a GDP per capita 3-5 times higher.
- The US is losing to China: “Washington is actually far more corrupt than Beijing. If you want to get something done in Washington, you do what you do in Jakarta: just slip some money to the right people.”
- China 9 years ahead of schedule on meeting its Paris agreement climate change goals.
- A letter to the Trump Administration signed by over 100 US academics and ambassadors: China is not an enemy.
What about the Hong Kong protests?
- The extradition bill came about when a man from Hong Kong killed his pregnant girlfriend while in holiday in Taiwan. He fled back to Hong Kong. Taiwan asked for him to be extradited, but Hong Kong did not have an extradition treaty with Taiwan, so the administration in Hong Kong proposed a bill that would allow Taiwan, the PRC, and Macau to request extradition, which the judiciary in Hong Kong can then approve. There were 49 crimes that were to be included in the bill that would allow extradition requests. Some of these were financial crimes (Hong Kong is a popular tax haven for billionaires), and the Capitalists in Hong Kong shit themselves because they are often in breach of PRC law, but protected by Hong Kong's independence as a Special Administrative Region. This bill is completely reasonable, and any fears of the PRC taking over or of the extradition of 'political' criminals is unfounded. The US is encouraging the organizers to keep protesting in order to provoke the administration in Hong Kong to crack down on them, so that they can blame China and keep up their propaganda narrative that 'CHINA BAD!' More here.
- Hong Kong Human Rights Monitor and HKCTU, along with 68 other Hong Kong “democratic right” organizations earn hundreds of thousands every year from State Department funded NGOs.
- American Government NGOs fuel Hong Kong Protests.
- Leaders of protests meet with Trump administration asking for intervention.
- “Something else you won't see in imperialist msm: Hong Kongers organizing to show their support for extradition amendment. "Hong Kongers can't be at ease if fugitives are in the large".
- “Over 900,000 real name signatures in "Protecting justice & supporting extradition" petition. Reasons listed: HK criminal committed murder in TW; HK current extradition law has flaws & needs amendment asap; HK shouldn't be fugitive heaven, extradition amendment has many safeguards”.
What's going on with the Uyghurs?
- What's going on with the Uyghurs / Xinjiang province?
- A Pakistani Diplomat given full access to “re-education camps” and this is what she found.
- China's policies in the Xinjiang Uyghur autonomous region lift 1.85 million people out of poverty from 2014-2017.
- US fuels terrorism in China: “1 million Uyghurs never verified”
- China’s Xinjiang Problem – Made in USA.
- No, the UN did not report China has ‘massive internment camps’ for Uighur Muslims.
- The Truth About China’s Uyghur Problem.
- Religious freedoms in China explained.
- Thousands of Muslims from the Uyghur province make Hajj Pilgrimage yearly.
- EU rejects China offer of Xinjiang tour.
- If China Is Anti-Islam, Why Are These Chinese Muslims Enjoying a Faith Revival?
- More sources debunking this here.
What about China spying on its own people?
- China’s Social Credit System, and how it isn't actually Black Mirror and how you should stop using facile pop cultural references to demonize countries you haven't bothered to understand.
- The complex truth about China’s Social Credit system
What about the Tiananmen square massacre?
- Tiananmen Square "Massacre", A Propaganda Hoax.
- [It wasn't a massacre of peaceful students, but a skirmish between PLA soldiers and armed detach
This survey shows how most people in China (73%) consider their country to be a democracy. Only South Koreans have a higher perception of their own democracy than Chinese people do. In the US, on the other hand, less than half of the population (49%) believes their country to be a democracy. Numbers are bad for most other western nations as well. This should pretty well demonstrate how accusations that China is an authoritarian dictatorship rely on a) ignoring what the people of China themselves believe and experience; and b) ignoring how obviously undemocratic the US is.
EDIT: Here's the actual data: https://daliaresearch.com/blog/democracy-perception-index-2020/