Nevertheless, it’s pretty grim to think about what they’ve had to do as a society to become that.
It is grim, certainly, but I think it stands out particularly because China ascended to the status of a developed nation within living memory. If we compare recent Chinese history to the labor conditions and repression which took place in the West during the industrial revolution, it doesn't seem particularly heinous. Not good - and I think it is shitty to handwave the backbreaking work required to become the capitalist world-market's mega-factory of choice - but honestly I'd be interested to hear about any other state which underwent an industrial transformation remotely on that scale without enduring even more brutal conditions.
It is grim, certainly, but I think it stands out particularly because China ascended to the status of a developed nation within living memory. If we compare recent Chinese history to the labor conditions and repression which took place in the West during the industrial revolution, it doesn't seem particularly heinous. Not good - and I think it is shitty to handwave the backbreaking work required to become the capitalist world-market's mega-factory of choice - but honestly I'd be interested to hear about any other state which underwent an industrial transformation remotely on that scale without enduring even more brutal conditions.