this post was submitted on 26 Apr 2026
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[–] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 3 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

You say the people of China view it “very favourably” but if you look at the columns for free speech and transparency it is on the lower side.

Incorrect, China is near the top of the list. See the bottom:

Free speech and transparency are the specific aspects I was talking about; public support is not a silver bullet and can be fabricated by state control.

Free speech and transparency are high in China, assuming you're a part of the working classes, so you should have no problems.

Capitalists manipulating the press to spread disinformation is not an excuse for the state to suppress and censor all criticism.

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.

I meant in America over there, not China. It is not difficult for an American to fire up YouTube and find an English video openly criticizing the trump administration.

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.

You can easily find Americans criticizing trump or the US on YouTube with millions of views, if not more. So this is just false. I can easily provide you with such a video(s) if requested. Can you do the same about China, from Chinese nationals in china?

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!

I have dropped the use of the term “imperialist” in this discussion, but yes I do believe China is violent and opportunistic.

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.

Yet you have no problem doing the inverse.

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.

I’m not interested in discussing imperialism here. Jargon asides, I see China as being a violent state in its own ways, “imperialist” or not.

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.

I don’t find your views compelling so I’m not likely to reconsider my beliefs, much less to fit specifically within a communist box.

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.