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Comment by crop_rotation | Hacker News Reader

I am not claiming China is free or democratic at all, just that Government in turn is able to use it's authoritarianism to do stuff for the country.

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FYI, a good term for this is "state capacity"

If that's what you really believe, then I'd say Chinese government propaganda is working as intended.

Have you ever really visited China? I would just say go to your preferred youtube channel and watch any chinese city and any indian city and then say the same thing as above.

Don't base your opinion of China on YouTube channels that show you a few modern places in Chongqing or the high-speed train and pretend that this represents all of China. They don't show you the homeless people, the abandoned half-built high-rises, the dirty parks full of plastic waste, the barred-up windows because break-ins are so prevalent.

And travel 30 minutes outside of any major city. You'll see people living in broken-down buildings without heating when it's below zero, roads that haven't been maintained in decades, and poor people trying to jump in front of your car for insurance money.

China is neither the technological wonder of the world portrayed in these videos nor a bunch of peasants. It's a vast, complex country with a lot of good and a lot of bad.

I would love to say the same of India but unfortunately India has all of those problems and even the best parts of India don't hold a candle to even tier 2 cities in China.

Exactly the same could be said about several 1st world democratic countries. The point is India level of development is far lower than its neighbor having a similar population size and having come from as far down, or worse than India. The difference is a government that provided (more) benefits to its population.

That's the cost of having people protesting, blocking and badmouthing govt, for example you are doing right now. Try something like this in China against CCP, your account will be blocked within hour and cops will visit you in a day.

I have traveled widely across both India and China. China is wealthier and better off across the board: HDI, GDP per capita, healthcare, you name it.

https://countryeconomy.com/countries/compare/china/india?sc=...

China has its problems for sure, but vast slabs of India remain mired in sub-Saharan Africa levels of poverty and squalor.

"But the trains ran on time."

For anyone who didn't get this reference:

'In fact, there's an old saying about Mussolini that goes something like this: "Mussolini made the trains run on time." In other words, even dictators have their good points. Sure, fascism is an often brutal model of efficient government, full of poverty and corruption, but hey, at least the trains were newly punctual.

https://history.howstuffworks.com/history-vs-myth/did-mussol...

The fact check goes on to explain:

"Italy's railway had entered into a state of disrepair after World War I, but after the war ended, there had been a number of measures implemented to boost efficiency. Mussolini, of course, liked to say he was responsible for those improvements. However, those changes actually took place before he assumed power, so technically, he couldn't really take credit (although that didn't stop him). More to the point, the trains didn't always run on time, either."

I mean the everyday people are happy and their GDP is high.

I have been under the impression that China has been lying about their GDP for years and years, I thought this was commonly known.

I have also been under the impression, for years and years, that it isn't a good idea to speak ill of the one-party regime, to anyone ever.

I highly doubt GDP numbers in China are falsified, but GDP per capita doesn't matter much when median household incomes in China remain in the $250-350/mo (EDIT: $400-500/mo, good callout, needed to update priors from covid) range according to Chinese government statistics.

This is why Chinese overproduction exists - incomes are too low for most Chinese consumers to purchase higher value goods that are made in China, because you aren't upgrading your cellphone or car every year when your household income is in that range.

maybe those numbers are right decades ago - now it is double that, in disposable income

https://www.statista.com/statistics/278698/annual-per-capita...

2024 - https://www.stats.gov.cn/english/PressRelease/202408/t202408...

income of $300-ish vs disposable income of almost $3k are quite different things :)

That's 3k per 6 months, so about $500/month disposable income.

yup! a whole world apart from $250-ish income originally stated

Hence why I edited it once you pointed out the issue. But my initial point still stands.

The poverty rate in China declined even outside Chinese propaganda.

So there are benefits for the Chinese population.

You can disagree with their motives and methods but it's undeniable that the Chinese government is working incredibly hard for themselves and their citizens. The sheer manufacturing dominance of China speaks for itself, as does their presence on the global stage, as does their looming influence over geopolitics.

And yeah, they put out a shit ton of propaganda too. But it being propaganda doesn't by virtue of that fact make it lies. One would argue the more effective kind of propaganda is the kind that's verifiable fact, even if ideologically slanted in delivery.

And you know, I'm also biased as an American currently living under the "group of incompetent jackasses" administration, but I'd love for my government to do anything besides shutting down departments that make business owners mad and handing out tax breaks to the richest assholes here every fuckin day.

Yeah, but maybe it is a powerful country because it has a lot of hard-working people with improving conditions, not because it has a communist government. I mostly think that the Chinese government harmed Chinese development in the future with their shortsighted policies, like the one-child policy.

Also, does the government really work for its citizens if they are doing a genocide of one nation in the country?

Yeah, I agree that the Trump situation is frustrating and idiotic, however, we should not resort to shifting towards totalitarians. That's problematic thinking.

one child policy was disastrous, yeah.

It's a powerful country because of the leadership though. Policies and culture shape the country. China was extremely poor for a long time, and it wasn't because the people were lazy back then.

Pro-Chinese sentiment has increased lately here in the West it seems, and part of that must be because the Chinese have managed to put their best propaganda forward. But I don’t see how we can have any sane discussion when one side of the argument can be bad-faith dismissed off the bat.

I used to believe the western propaganda "they are all peasants" - then I went to see with my own eyes.

If you are going to parrot western talking points then it would be insane conversation.

> then I went to see with my own eyes

Exactly the same here. I went to see with my own eyes, and the reality is very different from what I hear in some news outlets and from politicians.

There are undeniably ways in which the command economy is simply more efficient. The party can decide that in 10 years they will be world leader in this or that, put resources toward it, and accomplish that goal. That doesn't mean the Chinese way is best for everyone, and there are certainly humanitarian issues, there are inefficiencies typical of a command economy, and there are unintended consequences, (tofu dreg, etc) but it's undeniable that they're currently getting stuff done.

Yeah, more efficient in making suboptimal decisions for everyone in the country.

With freedom of thought and markets, you get competition of ideas, which ultimately selects a better solution than any central planner can plan.

This is simply and verifiably false. How much new transmission infrastructure has China built in the last 2 decades? How much renewable generation? Say what you will about competition of ideas, but when it comes to getting the big iron projects completed and objectives met China has us beat, hands down. Building and maintaining infrastructure isn't working in the US right now.

And where are you getting your information? The most interesting thing is how U.S. politicians often use the phrase 'Chinese Communist Party' when talking about China, invoking Cold War-era connotations of communism. But everyone knows that the only things still 'communist' about China are the party's name, its symbols, and the flag.

I’ve been to both the U.S. and China. There's significantly more propaganda about China in the U.S. than there is about the U.S. in China. Stop blindly believing what others say—go see for yourself. In the coastal and Tier-1 cities, you’ll witness how a population the size of the entire United States enjoys a higher standard of living than the American middle class, with greater affordability, and clean, safe, and beautiful urban environments (with infrastructure that is way ahead of US).

What’s the relevance of authoritarianism? Is it necessary for the good government or is it neutral or other?

Every government is busy with some form of "do stuff for the country".

It seems clear above commenters are referencing that China performs better at accomplishing certain tasks, such as large scale infrastructure development, that isn’t comparable to other countries that “do stuff”.

I’m always skeptical of what I will call the admiration of “despotic efficiency / accomplishments”.

I’m not sure how efficient or how long accurate their success / failure rates are.

Especially when blocking a service would seem to have no impact on it…

You mean like the Stalin's 5 year plan from 70 years ago ?

Don't believe what any government pretend, especially communist ones. Chinese standard of living improved ? Absolutely.

Just like it did in previous emerging market, which were not ruled by communist party.

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