I've lived in China for work. It's genuinely no different than say, the Denmark in terms of "repression" except instead of arresting those that threaten capital, they arrest those that threaten the people (usually on behalf of capital). It's not an anarchist paradise, they haven't achieved communism, but they're likely the furthest thing from fascism that's still a nation. Anyone that claims to be on the left and dislikes their methods or compares them to fascists are genuinely either not on the left, or are baby lefties stuck in the 1800s in terms of reading and philosophy.

[–] spacedout@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Thank you for the interesting answer. But seeing as you had to actually live there to get this impression, aren't you being a bit strict on who's (adult) left? Between western and Chinese propaganda, and a lack of [access to] Chinese critical sources, I think it's incredibly hard to know what's what without actually visiting. I mean, you can read a lot of Marx, Lenin and Mao, as well as contemporary critical theory, development studies, political economy and so on, without feeling like you're able to get a clear view. I know I don't.

[–] finderscult@lemmy.ml 5 points 2 days ago

I'm being purposefully hyperbolic to people that think investing in local communities is a genocide. Realistically yes, you can have leftist beliefs while believing anti left fascist propaganda. A whole lot of why the Weimar Republic fell was socialists believing fascists over their own comrades. But really if the only actual sources for a thing are people paid to explicitly be against communism, maybe don't believe it. Read some Chinese history, look into the myths like mao ordering sparrows to be killed and read why that's not a thing that happened and where those stories first started.

You will never have a clear view of anything regarding people, were too chaotic of a thing to objectively record, but you can get a much better idea if you understand the underlying motivations of those doing the recording. Chinese propaganda wants to entrench Chinese power for a China controlled by the people. American propaganda wants to entrench the ruling classes power for a China controlled by the American ruling class. Seems the biases are therefore a little uneven.

[–] kureta@lemmy.ml 0 points 2 days ago

Is it possible to find information on the actual day to day state of affairs in China?

[–] Euphoma@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

The chinese web novel reverand insanity literally got banned for criticizing china. The guy who wrote it can't write it anymore and you can't even pirate the novel in china. cuz its been deleted off the chinese internet.

[–] finderscult@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 days ago (2 children)

That's nice and all, but there are literally millions of critics that aren't banned, whose work is publicly available, who criticize from a place of wanting to improve, not destroy.

China is ML, and if there's anything MLs live to do, it's criticize each other.

The vast majority of people that actually get banned from producing certain works either spread entirely false propaganda created by western intelligence agencies ( uighur "genocide" ) or want to remove the government entirely and replace it with a kleptocracy like the US has.

[–] spacedout@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Could you perhaps share any authors, works, blogs or whatever in English that critique Chinese politics in the manner you're describing?

Edit: Let me rephrase after having done some searching. If Marxists wanted non-Chinese government and non-CIA funded information about the conditions and struggles of Chinese workers, where would be a good place to find it?

[–] Euphoma@lemmy.ml 0 points 2 days ago

Fair. I don't follow chinese politics, I only read chinese webnovels translated into english so its the only thing I've heard of.