The PRC isn’t committing genocide against Uyghur peoples in Xinjiang, just like South Africa wasn’t committing “white genocide,” nor is there “christian genocide” in Nigeria. These are all examples of atrocity propaganda, where the west heavily distorts and often fabricates narratives in order to foment resistance and to give their own populations free excuses to not support anti-imperialism, in essence supporting it.
In the case of Xinjiang, the area is crucial in the Belt and Road Initiative, so the west backed sepratist groups in order to destabilize the region. China responded with vocational programs and de-radicalization efforts, which the west then twisted into claims of “genocide.” Nevermind that the west responds to seperatism with mass violence, and thus re-education programs focused on rehabilitation are far more humane, the tool was used both for outright violence by the west into a useful narrative to feed its own citizens. I highly recommend Qiao Collective’s Xinjiang: A Resource and Report Compilation for more on this subject, but on to your main points.
It’s funny that you mention that the polling in China, despite consistency and often being gathered by western orgs like the Ash Center, is unreliable. The same journalist, Jason Hickel, wrote Support for China: Is the data accurate? showing that, yes, it is. The PRC does employ censorship, but this is directed against that which undermines socialist construction, including liberal and pro-capitalist narratives.
The west practices censorship too, it’s just more evenly spread out between state and private sector. Tik Tok, for example, is now censoring pro-Palestinian views, after being purchased by a western company. The west widely reports on Chinese censorship while obfuscating its own, often citing “free speech” paradoxically in the instance of private corporations doing so.
It’s a well known phenomenon that people raised under authoritarian systems with heavy thoughts control will frequently answer the “socially acceptable” thing even on anonymous polls.
This phenomenon is well-known, yes, but not actually true. “Brainwashing” as in “thought control,” does not actually exist. People rationally agree with what they percieve is in their self-interest. We all do this. China does not have the ability to control thoughts, nor is it any more “authoritarian” than capitalist countries. China uses its authority in favor of the working classes, while the west uses it in favor of capitalists and imperialists.
Another effect that explains the incongruity in e.g. a larger proprotion of Chinese respondents thinking their system is democratic than French respondents is that words like democracy do not mean the same thing in China as they do in France.
This is actually a decent point. What does democracy mean in China? Rule by the majority, and the state acting in the interests of the majority. In, say, France, it usually gets reduced to vulgar methods of liberal democracy. Candidates are largely pre-approved by the capitalist system, filtered by campaign expenses and the capitalist media, preventing meaningful working class representation.
In China, they have direct elections for local representatives, which elect further “rungs,” laddering to the top. The top then has mass polling and opinion gathering. This combination of top-down and bottom-up democracy ensures effective results. For more on this, see Professor Roland Boer’s Socialism in Power: On the History and Theory of Socialist Governance.
China has the superior system for working in the interests of the working people, while France has the superior system for protecting corporate, imperialist interests.
The PRC does employ censorship, but this is directed against that which undermines socialist construction, including liberal and pro-capitalist narratives.
So in other words not everybody in China can freely express their opinion on political and social topics. Glad we agree on this objective fact. Now what, except for people not answering polls honestly and/or being brainwashed, explains 86% of Chinese respondents thinking that China has freedom of speech on political and social topics?
There is no country where everyone can freely express their opinions on political and social topics, though. The west also practices censorship on communists and anti-imperialists, the difference is that China censors the wealthy and reactionary instead of magnifying them.
Did you read Jason Hickels article on western skepticism towards Chinese citizens answering these polls honestly? Using a variety of sources, the conclusion is quite explicit:
In other words, people in China do not seem to self-censor based on fear. The authors conclude: “Across a variety of studies using different methodologies, a good deal of evidence suggests that the Chinese people are willing to answer politically sensitive questions in a truthful manner.” (emphasis mine)
What’s happening is that working class speech is relatively free, while capitalist and corporate speech is not. That’s why the vast majority say they have freedom of speech, while we know the state censors private, capitalist speech.
There are a lot of elements of the firewall that are something Europe should consider emulating, because it’s also keeping US slop out of the country and protecting domestic industry and stopping US meddling through electronic warfare. It allows for China to develop its own internal economy rather than be hollowed out and made dependent on Silicon Valley. It’s tech sovereignty.
Imagine if Europe replaced Facebook, Instagram, Xitter, and Youtube with its own internally developed and regulated platforms. No more tech dependency! China made the right choice and it’s becoming more clear as enshitification ruins the internet.
The Firewall is for domestic inrernet and infrastructure development. VPNs aren’t punished, and the Firewall doesn’t stop you from saying what you want, it just prevents foreign spyware like Facebook from becoming popular in China. There isn’t actually meaningful bias in the surveys, the fact that foreign spyware isn’t allowed doesn’t mean Chinese citizens don’t know about freedom or anything.
Secondly, the idea that “I don’t want to work the 996 work week” is censored is laughable. People in China are allowed to complain about working conditions, that’s part of how they’ve been able to rapidly improve them year over year for decades.
Oh good, you’re at the point of outright lying: your source doesn’t contain your claim, so I can only conclude you’re just deliberately being dishonest to waste people’s time or in the hope they wouldn’t check.
Western sinophobes continue to demonstrate that they start with their conclusions and then that whatever bad faith tricks are needed to try to justify them.
The PRC isn’t committing genocide against Uyghur peoples in Xinjiang, just like South Africa wasn’t committing “white genocide,” nor is there “christian genocide” in Nigeria. These are all examples of atrocity propaganda, where the west heavily distorts and often fabricates narratives in order to foment resistance and to give their own populations free excuses to not support anti-imperialism, in essence supporting it.
In the case of Xinjiang, the area is crucial in the Belt and Road Initiative, so the west backed sepratist groups in order to destabilize the region. China responded with vocational programs and de-radicalization efforts, which the west then twisted into claims of “genocide.” Nevermind that the west responds to seperatism with mass violence, and thus re-education programs focused on rehabilitation are far more humane, the tool was used both for outright violence by the west into a useful narrative to feed its own citizens. I highly recommend Qiao Collective’s Xinjiang: A Resource and Report Compilation for more on this subject, but on to your main points.
It’s funny that you mention that the polling in China, despite consistency and often being gathered by western orgs like the Ash Center, is unreliable. The same journalist, Jason Hickel, wrote Support for China: Is the data accurate? showing that, yes, it is. The PRC does employ censorship, but this is directed against that which undermines socialist construction, including liberal and pro-capitalist narratives.
The west practices censorship too, it’s just more evenly spread out between state and private sector. Tik Tok, for example, is now censoring pro-Palestinian views, after being purchased by a western company. The west widely reports on Chinese censorship while obfuscating its own, often citing “free speech” paradoxically in the instance of private corporations doing so.
This phenomenon is well-known, yes, but not actually true. “Brainwashing” as in “thought control,” does not actually exist. People rationally agree with what they percieve is in their self-interest. We all do this. China does not have the ability to control thoughts, nor is it any more “authoritarian” than capitalist countries. China uses its authority in favor of the working classes, while the west uses it in favor of capitalists and imperialists.
This is actually a decent point. What does democracy mean in China? Rule by the majority, and the state acting in the interests of the majority. In, say, France, it usually gets reduced to vulgar methods of liberal democracy. Candidates are largely pre-approved by the capitalist system, filtered by campaign expenses and the capitalist media, preventing meaningful working class representation.
In China, they have direct elections for local representatives, which elect further “rungs,” laddering to the top. The top then has mass polling and opinion gathering. This combination of top-down and bottom-up democracy ensures effective results. For more on this, see Professor Roland Boer’s Socialism in Power: On the History and Theory of Socialist Governance.
China has the superior system for working in the interests of the working people, while France has the superior system for protecting corporate, imperialist interests.
So in other words not everybody in China can freely express their opinion on political and social topics. Glad we agree on this objective fact. Now what, except for people not answering polls honestly and/or being brainwashed, explains 86% of Chinese respondents thinking that China has freedom of speech on political and social topics?
There is no country where everyone can freely express their opinions on political and social topics, though. The west also practices censorship on communists and anti-imperialists, the difference is that China censors the wealthy and reactionary instead of magnifying them.
Did you read Jason Hickels article on western skepticism towards Chinese citizens answering these polls honestly? Using a variety of sources, the conclusion is quite explicit:
What’s happening is that working class speech is relatively free, while capitalist and corporate speech is not. That’s why the vast majority say they have freedom of speech, while we know the state censors private, capitalist speech.
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There are a lot of elements of the firewall that are something Europe should consider emulating, because it’s also keeping US slop out of the country and protecting domestic industry and stopping US meddling through electronic warfare. It allows for China to develop its own internal economy rather than be hollowed out and made dependent on Silicon Valley. It’s tech sovereignty.
Imagine if Europe replaced Facebook, Instagram, Xitter, and Youtube with its own internally developed and regulated platforms. No more tech dependency! China made the right choice and it’s becoming more clear as enshitification ruins the internet.
The Firewall is for domestic inrernet and infrastructure development. VPNs aren’t punished, and the Firewall doesn’t stop you from saying what you want, it just prevents foreign spyware like Facebook from becoming popular in China. There isn’t actually meaningful bias in the surveys, the fact that foreign spyware isn’t allowed doesn’t mean Chinese citizens don’t know about freedom or anything.
Secondly, the idea that “I don’t want to work the 996 work week” is censored is laughable. People in China are allowed to complain about working conditions, that’s part of how they’ve been able to rapidly improve them year over year for decades.
Let’s see your evidence of that
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Oh good, you’re at the point of outright lying: your source doesn’t contain your claim, so I can only conclude you’re just deliberately being dishonest to waste people’s time or in the hope they wouldn’t check.
Western sinophobes continue to demonstrate that they start with their conclusions and then that whatever bad faith tricks are needed to try to justify them.