So, objectively they are in a far worse situation. The CCP has long quelled dissent by saying yes things suck but look at fas things are improving. As that breaks down they are in for problems.
I’m not disagreeing, but I’ve not seen a single homeless person in China on two separate trips lasting a couple months. I was in big cities and in rural areas. It’s only a personal anecdote but just wondering if your claim is actually objectively true?
Though it’s hard to get accurate figures. “In 2011, there were approximately 2.41 million homeless adults and 179,000 homeless children living in the country.[1] However, one publication estimated that there were one million homeless children in China in 2012.[2][unreliable source]”
China doesn’t want embarrassing figures known and actively hides such things, so it’s very hard to compare them with other countries. However, they have zero problems cracking down on homelessness populations and forcefully relocating them.
"In 2018, the Department of Housing and Urban Development estimated roughly 553,000 homeless people in the United States on a given night,[4] or 0.17 percent of the population." [1]
So, given the best estimates, about the same homelessness rate.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homelessness_in_the_United_Sta...
I don't quite understand what exactly the two numbers are measuring, but that sounds more like something between 1.5 million and 553,000 people. (At least assuming the number didn't somehow drop by a million in 4 years, which would be an absolutely spectacular improvement that I think we'd have heard about)
Someone given temporary access to housing has shelter, but you need to keep providing them shelter so you need to classify them as a person in need of housing Aka homeless. You may also see the terms Houseless, Unhoused, or Unsheltered used to make the distinctions more clear.
PS: There’s also a long continuum from owning a home with plumbing etc and living on a park bench. Governments want people in permanent spaces that provide adequate shelter and have a mailing address for a host of different reasons.
Also that 2.41 in 2011 excluded 0.179 million kids so 0.19%. The 3 million figure in 2015 so 3m / 1393m = 0.22%.
However, elsewhere it was suggested that children alone might be closer to 1 million. I am not suggesting it’s accurate just that their estimates are suspect. Hell I just looked at a paper suggesting homeless was close to 300 million in China. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ajes.12324 That seems unlikely, but the idea it’s even possible to mention suggests we don’t have adequate figures.
China is good at controlling public opinions like this. I grew up in a "third line" city and we were always told if we don't have good grades, we end up having to clean the streets. But we were also told there is "social safety" for medicine.
In reality, you need a job and need to pay a monthly fee for "social safety". And in reality, people with low grades can end up in gangs or prison. Only the obedient type can get a hard labor job.
Many of these lucky ones would sleep where they work or stay with families or sleep at "migrant worker hotel/camps". It's not a life anyone would want to live.
In terms of quality of health care, even though all workers pay into "social safety", most cannot be seen by good doctors. For surgeries, they often had to travel to bigger cities and pay out of pocket. And " social safety" mostly covers visits to clinics (baiscally a consultation at a third world version of your Walgreen pharmacy counter).
I know people tend to hate the USA but it's not worse than China.