this post was submitted on 26 Apr 2026
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No, actually, they cannot.
You're right, belief alone is not adequate. What's instead adequate is analyzing the mode of production and distribution in China, the class character of the state, and the historical necessity to prevent capitalist disinformation from spreading uncontested. I don't just believe China has a working class state based on hope alone, but based on concrete evidence. Over 90% of the public supports the government, and China is ranked even by western organizations as a thriving democracy even by western definitions of democracy:
Historically, capitalists have manipulated the press to spread disinformation. Radio Free Asia is an example primarily directed against China. In the USSR, Radio Free Europe contributed heavily towards pessimism regarding constructing socialism. Class struggle does not end under socialism, so the working classes need to continue to win the class war.
Of course you'll find extensive criticism of the west within China, the west is the world imperial hegemon.
Criticism doesn't work like that. People don't generally make hit pieces. If you want an example of more liberal press in China that desires more liberalization, see South China Morning Post. Institutions are prevented from mouthing off, but people on the ground often consider political critique to be a national pass time. The difference between the west and China is that there is a national hope in China, rather than pessimism.
No, I do not. Frankly, I've done far more research into China than you have, and I don't mean that in a dismissive way, but in the sense that I've actually had to grapple with my skepticism of China in the past. I already admitted to many currently existing problems in China, but you've continued to make baseless claims about "Chinese imperialism."
Correct, I have not lived there. That's why I focus on not making authoritative claims denouncing China, and instead seek to learn what I can from the outside while focusing on changing the world I live in, the west. That's where my activism takes me. Where we differ is that I have done far more study on Marxism, Marxism-Leninism, and the history of AES countries.
Why not? Again, look at the polling from the Perception of Democracy index, China is ranked very favorably by its own people:
You've committed to denying a concrete, materialist understanding of imperialism as a stage in capitalism. I've made it clear that imperialism is a necessary evolution within capitalism once it reaches the monopoly stage, with dominance of finance capital, and switches from export of commodity to export of capital. This is a clear and coherent system with an enormous breadth of study, even if you don't want to call it "imperialism," the fact is that this system exists, that it's the dominant mode of the west, and that China does not practice this system.
It does not matter if you do not consider yourself a communist. This was first analyzed by Hobson, a liberal. You do not have to be a communist to recognize it, if you leave this entirely in the hands of communists then you're just ceding any right to be taken seriously in any geopolitical matter, as it's the primary contradiction in the modern era.
I do agree that we are at an impasse, but I hope you'll reconsider your viewpoints and actually commit to studying phenomena in a materialist and dialectical viewpoint.
Incorrect, China is near the top of the list. See the bottom:
Free speech and transparency are high in China, assuming you're a part of the working classes, so you should have no problems.
Says who? And further, no, not all criticism is censored, institutionalized private owned disinformation is censored. The working classes need to be able to control which class's speech is allowed to propogate and dominate, otherwise capitalists manipulate the press to spread nihilism towards the socialist project. This has happened historically, and it sounds like you don't actually care if a socialist project succeeds as long as fascists and capitalists are given free speech.
Sure, it isn't difficult to find that, because liberal societies have effectively drawn attention to individual figures, rather than the system itself. Criticize Trump all you want, don't you dare start suggesting socialism as it exists in the real world is a better system though. What you are finding is Great Man Theory, the idea that history is driven not by material conditions but individual great men and women sporadically born throughout history, which serves as a pressure valve.
Why would people in China make hit pieces on a beloved leader? Why are you taking the absence of such hit pieces as evidence that Xi Jinping is actually evil? You can find articles from South China Morning Post, itself a Chinese media platform, criticizing the CPC! You're trying to have it both ways!
Yes, you unilaterally dropped one of the most critical parts of this discussion because it wasn't going your way, and you have not once provided evidence of China being "violent and opportunistic." You've hemmed and hawed around these lines.
Do you mean I have no problems highlighting structural issues with the west? I live in the west, I know its problems well. Do you mean that I am more comfortable making claims about China? It's because I have studied it far more than you have, including the ideology driving the CPC. I'm certainly no expert, but there's a clear gap in knowledge here that would be silly to not acknowledge.
Yes, again, you're not interested in discussing the single most crucial component of modern geopolitics. You've decided to ignore the topic completely because acknowledging it undermines your points. As for seeing China as a "violent state," this is definitely true with respect to how it treats fascists and capitalists, but not towards the working classes.
It must be very convenient to be able to refuse to discuss topics that are widely acknowledged and studied even by non-communists, in order to retreat to idealism and metaphysics (like race science earlier). I'm being harsh now, because this has become a farce. I am sorry, but if you are going to continue to retreat into vibes and gut-feelings over materialist analysis, then there's nowhere for this conversation to go.
Standing against the socialist state doesn't take you out of the working class, it just means you have become a class traitor. Critique is valuable, and necessary. Critique based on metaphysics, idealism, and all manner of unscientific grounding is not genuine critique for the sake of a better future, but instead just a tool to be magnified by the bourgeoisie in restoring their rule.
And this, dear reader, is why we actually analyze history, rather than simply hoping that despite all historical analysis, surely this time letting capitalists have free speech will not backfire. There is no successful revolution that has not cracked down on the tools available to the bourgeoisie to restore their order, as all who failed to do so have crumbled. For the sake of your insistence that fascists and capitalists be given equal rights to that of the proletariat, you work against the socialist state, as a reactionary.
No, you're conflating the censorship of disinformation and fomenting anti-socialist sentiment with all criticism. Criticism is necessary for growth, but all criticism has a definite class character to it, a definite class outlook. It is only working class outlook that should stand in socialist society.
Who do you think is censoring posts in BiliBili?
Everyone has biases. There is no such thing as an "unbiased" position. I have regularly encouraged you to do 2 things:
Study more, be it theory, history, and practice.
Focus on problems that you actually can impact, in your country. Oppose your country's imperialism (as I'm near certain you live in an imperialist country). Organize for socialism.
Class analysis is critical. If you ignore it, you equate all violence, when violence is sadly an unavoidable aspect of the class struggle itself. There have been no non-violent revolutions, and revolutionary violence is violence that ends the daily violence of capitalism and imperialism.
Let's see what you have to offer.
China is the second most populous country on the planet. You'll need to do more than that.
This is bullshit. Tibetan culture is protected, not erased. What's criminalized is the desire to restore the slave-based system of earlier Tibet, back when the Dalai Lama was backed by the CIA and the PLA liberated it. Tibetan Review is funded by the exile government, the state based on slavery and torture.
There is no Uyghur genocide, this is an example of China censoring disinformation, and you're proving this to be the correct decision. After all, the west gets to accuse socialist countries of all manner of atrocities in order to manufacture consent for war. Sorry to tell you, but the "free flow of information" you value in the west is just the free flow of disinformation. Read Xinjiang: A Report and Resource Compilation, nearly the entirety of claims of genocide circle back to US-paid propagandist Adrian Zenz of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation.
After the introduction of the vocational schools and other de-radicalizing programs, western-backed ETIM terrorist attacks and mass murders went down dramatically, to practically 0.
As for Yang Li, I cannot find much on her, only that "human rights organizations" like Minsheng Guancha that seem to always be in trouble for opposing socialism seem to have her in a few articles. She may or may not even be real, or her story may be heavily doctored for western uses. The west uses accusations of "human rights abuses" all the time in order to give ammo against geopolitical enemies.
Given what you count as "proof" elsewhere, I'll remain skeptical.
If that's all it takes to get you to believe in atrocity propaganda, I can only assume you believe white genocide in South Africa is real, that Iraq had WMD, that Iran killed 40,000 protestors recently, and that Hamas beheaded numerous babies during Al-Aqsa Flood. If you aren't already familiar with how disinformation works, and are more than comfortable using it as ammo, then yes, you probably would fall into the category of reactionary.
I've done more research on each of these topics than you have, I guarantee it. I place far more weight on them than you have, it seems you're more interested in the narrative they present than their factual basis.
More than that, I view it as dishonest.