Comment by nortonham | Hacker News Reader

Comment by nortonham | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

>Unfortunately for everyone, over the past few years it's become more clear that Xi is not as smart as the leader of a gigantic autocracy really needs to be.

Who's everyone? Do you mean the political and pundit class of the US and the anglo world?

China's economy continues to grow while the west is stagnating economically, culturally. The US has unfettered gun violence, a racist criminal justice system, an ever worsening homeless problem, opioid addiction, most people only one medical emergency away from not being able to afford their rent, awful education system, people living paycheck to paycheck, rising cost of living while real wages have been stagnant for decades........

China handled the COVID epidemic far better than the US did. Approval rating for Chinese gov't and US gov't don't even compare. And how the Chinese populace views its future vs how most westerners view theirs, much the same.

>....have allowed the Party to manipulate public opinion pretty effectively

uhhh, we might want to read up on the mass media in the US/West since we're talking about manipulating public opinion.

By everyone, I mean everyone. China is a huge part of the global economy (20% of US imports are from China), so China remaining stable and friendly would be good for people in China and for people outside China. It's not controversial, is it?

I somewhat agree with your appraisal of the state of the US, based on what I hear & read. China has big problems internally too though - not least a massive looming demographic crisis. The absence of a free press, free speech and an independent judiciary are definite negatives. Corruption remains part of everyday life in the forms of bribery and nepotism - if you're seriously ill you'd better have connections to senior hospital staff or local government (or lots of money, but that kind of comes with the connections anyway).

Mass media in the West is largely in the hands of private interests with their own agendas, it's not in lockstep with whoever is in power. Arguably the media controls the politicians, not the other way around. It's a totally different problem, it's mainly polarised and divided our populations which is pretty much the opposite of what Chinese state controlled media does.

>so China remaining stable and friendly would be good for people in China and for people outside China. It's not controversial, is it?

On it's own that's not a controversial thing to say. But headlines like "Xi Jinping says he is preparing china for war" don't tell the whole story. China is only preparing itself in case things get worse globally. The US is often the aggressor, and the US has been trying to destabilize China for a very long time. The Chinese government knows this.

>Mass media in the West is largely in the hands of private interests with their own agendas, it's not in lockstep with whoever is in power.

I would argue that these "private interests" have a big part to play in getting people into power, and for influencing those in power.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com