Amerikkka land of the jailed (But China is defo AuThOrITarIAn!!)

Although state censorship and propaganda are widespread in China, these findings highlight that citizen perceptions of governmental performance respond most to real, measurable changes in individuals’ material well-being. Satisfaction and support must be consistently reinforced. As a result, the data point to specific areas in which citizen satisfaction could decline in today’s era of slowing economic growth and continued environmental degradation.

Understanding CPC Resiliance

The CPC does restrict the speech of capitalists, yes. However, the reason the people support the CPC is because of dramatic improvements in living conditions, not fear of the state.

The data from this article is up to 2016. Things have changed quite a bit since the COVID crisis.

I don’t know what it is about this post in particular, but the threadiverse isn’t sending its best

Edit to add: Some of them were so angry that they broke out their alt accounts to downvote some more.

I think some of the Reddit refuges honestly think Reddit sucks because Spez Man Bad. There’s no analysis of what creates Reddits and Spezes, and therefore they don’t recognize who made this platform and why.

I have to believe ultimately some of these people will come around, so that’s good at least.

The fuck is up with the Chinese propaganda on this website…

The data from the source I provided on perceptions of democracy is from 2024. The Ash Center Study proves that this isn’t a recent thing, the CPC has broad support and successfully maintains it. Here are even more sources on the matter.

You have a hypothesis but no evidence that it actually matters.

At some point, you gotta dance with who brung ya. If, after over a century of experimentation, you conclude that every single AES state is as evil as the CIA tells us, there’s not much socialism to support.

You also really need to jam your eyes shut and ignore the enormous improvements in quality of life, even in the face of adverse economic headwinds, in the surviving socialist block. “Ah, but I’m not free to shitpost on the Internet the same way!” is such sad metric for a country’s success

You mean freedom of speech… That’s what you’re saying is not an important value? The freedom to speak truth to power without the goon squad kicking down your door? Clearly that is being eroded in the US right now, but China certainly doesn’t have it.

There are a lot of communists on Lemmy, and communists tend to support socialist countries. Simple as that. Plus, in the current era where the US Empire is dying, China is presenting itself as a better trade partner for the global south, one focused more on multilateralism and not on imperialism.

China has it for the working class. Capitalist speech and misinformation are targeted, but the working class is largely free to say what they want.

Alright, you did convince me that the Chinese people report strong support to the CCP and report a strong perception of democracy.
What I am still not convinced of however, is that PRC IS democratic.

In my book, for a country to be democratic it needs to have:

• Freedom of speech
• Freedom of press
• Freedom of reunion
• Freedom of protest
• Universal access to education
• Political plurality
• Universal suffrage
• Universal respect of human right

My opinion today is that, I highly doubt PRC qualifies to any of this points, but I don’t know for sure. If you convince me with credible evidence that PRC is better than, let’s say, France, Germany or Norway, on all these points, then I am ready to move to China with you next year.

Edit: I forgot a few important point on my democratic list of requirements:

• Laicity (division of state and religion and tolerance for all religions)
• Division of power (Legislative, Justice, Executive, etc, must be help by different institution regulating each other)

Why are they trying to brute-force propaganda? At least be subtle, and bribe us next time.

It doesn’t exist, how is that hard to admit for you? Freedom of speech is intended to protect exactly the kind of speech you disagree with, otherwise it’s not a thing. “Largely free” = NOT FREE

Lemmy.ml has a ton of communists, communists tend to support socialist countries

China is about as socialist as my shit is a bouquet of roses.

It’s capitalism. It’s always capitalism.

Look up the definition of authoritarianism. Bombing other countries is not the defining feature of an authoritarian government.

old accounts, with maybe 1 comment per month

Isn’t that just lurking behaviour?

First of all, you have a very liberal-minded understanding of democracy. A lot of these values are really only “valid” in as much as they apply to capitalists in the west. For example:

1. Freedom of Speech
2. Freedom of Press

Both of these only exist in the west as far as they can be abused by those with enough money to buy the media narrative. In China, speech of capitalists and misinformation is cracked down on, but the working class is largely left to speak what they want.

Freedom of reunion (I take to mean freedom of assembly) is partially valid. As China is a socialist country, and the class struggle is very much still alive, creating groups opposed to socialism is cracked down on more. However, there exist many specialty groups, in fact there are 8 political parties other than the CPC that work cooperatively with the CPC when it comes to governing.

Freedom of protest is fine. Protests and public backlash are what caused the CPC to back off on COVID restrictions, even though the CPC was correct. You can’t really aim to overthrow socialism or anything, but protests for example are often supported by the CPC against capitalists.

Education is kept extremely cheap in China. Schools are extremely competitive as well, partially because of how many people there are competing for the top universities, but overall education is extremely affordable. It isn’t free as far as I’m aware, but it isn’t a block for the working class.

Regarding political plurality, there’s a saying in China: “let a hundred flowers bloom, a hundred schools of thought contend.” I recommend this article on Roland Boer’s trip to China.

As for universal suffrage:

>All citizens of the People’s Republic of China who have reached the age of 18 have the right to vote and stand for election, regardless of ethnic background, race, sex, occupation, family background, religious belief, education level, property status or length of residence. People who have been deprived of their political rights according to law do not have the right to vote and stand for election. One voter has only one vote in each election.

As for universal respect of human rights, China does quite well, and unlike the countries you listed, it isn’t imperialist. France, Germany, Norway, the west in general, all depend on vast looting and plundering of the global south. China doesn’t, it runs on largely its own production, which is why countries in the global south are flocking to China for construction contracts and to join the Belt and Road Initiative.

Imperialist countries in the west use vast exports of capital to super-exploit international labor for super-profits, that’s where western safety nets come from. Essentially, you can think of the west as capitalists in country form, exploiting those under their domination, while China is aligned with the global south and doesn’t have that private domination of finance capital that enables imperialism in the first place.

I’m not moving to China anytime soon. I can’t speak Mandarin, and I have friends and family where I live. I do organize with communists, though, and would love to bring about socialism in my country.

Edit for your edit:

Religion is protected.

As for “separation of powers,” this circles back to you having a thoroughly liberal understanding of politics. Government should cooperate in a functional society, not work against itself. Capitalist countries rely on this instability of government in order to keep capital on top, but there’s no actual reasoning for it. The churn, the competition, it’s all by design to keep society turned against itself instead of cooperating.

Not as well supported by sources as you previous replies, such a shame. But you gave me a good laugh