Amid a membership expansion, leaders of the bloc spoke out against sanctions, conditions on sovereign credit and dollar hegemony, Abdul Rahman reports.
By Abdul Rahman
Peoples Dispatch
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa set the tone for the BRICS summit in Johannesburg when he opened
Democracy with Chinese characteristics they meant.
Democracy without dissent. China has achieved peak democracy. Once you mercilessly crush all opposition, your population becomes completely unified and elections are easy, straightforward affairs! The one secret of success that western democracies don’t want you to know!
A study by Harvard over 15 years show that the Chinese national government, administered by the CPC, enjoys a consistent 95% approval rating. You’re delusional if you think they achieved that with violence against 1.4 billion people
I used to live in China.
Yes, there are people that like the government. However, most people are very aware they can’t speak out against the government, and would if they could. Far more than 5%.
Based on my experience, the statistic of 95% feels highly flawed in some way.
Overall satisfaction in my experience was still pretty high. Did people have complaints? Of course. But, well, looking at the alternative…
Fuck man, if the US didn’t pay so well it really would feel like a third-world country. Transit? Nonexistent. Roads? Falling apart. Drugs? A core component of society. Police? Insanely corrupt and racist. Crime? Rising as you sleep, but at least violent crimes are falling. Time spent on useless bureaucratic bullshit? Infinite. Wealth inequality? Of course. Healthcare? The fuck is that? Life expectancy? Low. Sanitation and drinking water? Clearly still questionable. Traffic accidents? Everywhere. Electrical grid? Literally falling apart in some places.
Plus, the democratic system inherently polarizes people towards dissatisfaction. In a democracy, you might be dissatisfied if you think someone could do better. Without a vote, you’re dissatisfied if you think the government is not acting in your best interests.
Ignoring the whataboutism, I wouldn’t use the US as an ideal alternative lol. Both China and the US have many areas in which they should improve. It’s in only one of those countries that it is potentially dangerous to say that though.
Ah yes, because the right to protest is very well-protected in the US and police never oversteps their bounds against activists…
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Floyd_protests
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/January_6_United_States_Capitol_attack
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Manuel_Esteban_Paez_Terán
The government also doesn’t have a vast surveillance apparatus that spies on everyone and has public and fair justice system…
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/PRISM
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Foreign_Intelligence_Surveillance_Court
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriot_Act
And I’m sure that the US never conducts extrajudicial killings of US citizens in non-hostile countries, because that would be wrong…
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Abdulrahman_al-Awlaki
Meanwhile, weibo was full of posts condemning the COVID-19 lockdowns. It’s still full of posts asking how the government plans to revive the economy. Hell, the lockdown protests in China literally forced the government to change COVID-19 policy significantly.
When was the last time a major US protest achieved anything?
Dude, I just said I’m not trying to say that the US is an ideal country to compare things to. I agree with you, the US sucks in a lot of ways.
I am saying that speech about sensitive topics can be dangerous in China. Hong Kong stuff, tiananmen square, Uighurs in Xinjiang, those kinds of things - the people I talked to seemed to be afraid to talk about those things, to the point that people would tell me “we should not talk about this.” That isn’t something that happens in places with stronger freedom of speech protections.
Please don’t respond by a list of ways America is bad. I know that already, and it isn’t the point.
If you’re an obnoxious foreigner who only wants to talk about Hitler in Germany, you’ll get similar responses. Or I know you said stop using USA a comparison, but in this case it’s a very easy and apt one. If you only want to talk about how the WTC attack was an inside job in the USA as a foreigner, you’ll get similar responses. It doesn’t mean they accept your version of events, just that it’s awkward to talk to you about it. Or I guess a similar one but back to Germany. If you’re a yank who wants to commiserate about how fucked the GDR was with someone who lived in the GDR, they’ll give you one half-arsed rebuttal then ask to change topic.
You should use your insights to conduct your more scientifically based study. I’m sure the CIA will be happy to fund you if you explain it’ll refute Harvard’s 95% claim.