1. Why does China, a socialist country, have mega corporations like Tencent and Bytedance? Are they collectively owned by syndicates or unions? If this is a transitionary phase to socialism, can we trust China to actually enforce Socialism after this stage ends?
  2. Child Labor in factories: Myth or Fact? I have a Chinese friend who said he personally never worked as a child in China, but obviously if this was true not every single kid would have worked in a factory.
  3. Surveillance and Social Credit: are these myths, or are they true? Why would China go so far to implement these systems, surely it'd be far too costly and burdensome for whatever they'd gain from that.
  4. Uighur Muslim genocide: Is this true?

Thank you to anyone who answers, and if you do please cite sources so I can look further into China. I really appreciate it.

edit: I was going to ask about Tiananmen Square, but as it turns out that literally just didn't happen. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/wikileaks/8555142/Wikileaks-no-bloodshed-inside-Tiananmen-Square-cables-claim.html

https://leohezhao.medium.com/notes-for-30th-anniversary-of-tiananmen-incident-f098ef6efbc2

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/there-was-no-tiananmen-square-massacre/

  • chickentendrils [any, comrade/them]
    ·
    11 months ago
    1. Because of their market pivot, which was to avoid having the whole project get destabilized and destroyed. Their stated intention is to become a socialist country. I don't think it's worth thinking about it in terms of trust unless you're a Chinese citizen. Worst case they don't pivot and the world is just completely fucked.
    2. There's child labor of course, but that's just a feature of capitalism.
    3. None of my fiance's family has ever interacted with any kind of social credit system, it's apparently mainly for business entities.
    4. Certainly nothing like what's been reported breathlessly in Western media.
    • Frank [he/him, he/him]
      ·
      11 months ago

      Yeah the "Social credit system" doesn't exist. There's some kind of business credit system that may be the source of the social credit system bs, but no system of tracking individual behavior and using it to punish and control people exists.

      • JuneFall [none/use name]
        ·
        11 months ago

        Yeah sources like FP do align with that: https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/11/16/chinas-orwellian-social-credit-score-isnt-real/

        I disagree with FP plenty, but the headline at least fits.