China Tries To Censor Data About Nearly 1 Billion People in Poverty::Chinese government censors tried to control discussions about the country’s economy this week.

  • qooqie@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    1 billion people in China living in poverty?? I find that almost hard to believe that’s ~66% of their population

    • Jiggle_Physics@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      If it’s propaganda it’s coming from within

      “In his article for the business outlet Yicai, Li cited data from a 2021 research paper by the China Institute of Income Distribution at Beijing Normal University, which placed the number of people living on less than 2,000 yuan a month at 964 million, or nearly 70 percent of the population.”

    • grayman@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Most certainly easy to believe. China is not that far off from DPRK anymore. Look at what they did during covid (welding people in their apartments, killing all pets, arresting people for curfew violations, etc). Look at their typical workday (14x6) and wage (a few $/day). How do think we get cheap products like $25 microwaves and $15 coffee makers. CCP wants a slave population, not citizens.

        • ImFresh3x@sh.itjust.works
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          1 year ago

          Either way I find it funny that the same anti westerners who say China is fair to its workers, are the same ones who always mention that my phone is made by slaves. Sometimes in the same discussion.

        • dangblingus@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          1 year ago

          Bruh. Are you smoking crack?

          Your view of how COVID-19 mitigation worked is skewed by breathless, click-baiting media reports (known by most as “lies”) made by people who could not, at a very deep, very primal level, admit to even themselves that brown-skinned people outperformed white-skinned people by orders of magnitude and made up shit to placate their humiliation.

          What are you even talking about?

        • iopq@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I was in China during the pandemic. In 2022 everyone got COVID. Literally everyone in every big city.

          So they should have opened up after omega became the dominant variant. No point in locking people down when they lost anyway.

          It was a good response in the beginning, but they doubled down on it for three years

            • iopq@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              They stopped tracking cases in December, so how do you know it’s one third?

              They literally told us to stay at home and not go to the hospital even if we have it

          • ttmrichter@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            The CPC […] is by no means a good government and the people in it are not good people at any level above the community cadre level […]

            They’re vile authoritarians […]

            Do you actually fucking READ before reacting you utter fuckwit?!

            Talking with Americans is like talking with ADHD-addled toddlers for fuck’s sake!

            • nixcamic@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              I mean

              A: you’re an asshole, even if you had a point.

              B: your whole argument is an appeal to your own authority and a dismissal of anyone who disagrees with you as an idiot.

              And C:

              You spent the whole comment praising China and dismissing criticisms in specific details. Then tacked a few vague complaints that noone would disagree with on in the end. This is a very common tactic used to make it look like you haven’t “taken sides”.

    • Filthmontane@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      That’s because it’s being applied to Western standards. China spends a crazy amount of money on social welfare and government assistance. Minimum wage is around or less than 2000 Yuan a month around the country, yes. But, that’s completely ignoring currency exchange rates and cost of living.

      Cost of living in Shanghai and Beijing are around 4,500 Yuan. Which means a couple or two roommates can live on minimum wage in the biggest cities. Compare that to minimum wage and cost of living in New York City or LA which is $1,280 a month, costing $4,300 and 1,342 a month, costing $5,576 respectively.

      Tldr: how much money you make is only relevant when compared to your cost of living. It’s not hard to live in China on $300 a month.

      • dangblingus@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        1 year ago

        So by relative purchasing power, why would China want to censor information if it didn’t actually put them in a negative light?

        • Filthmontane@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Well I think this article and comment section is a clear indication of the power of this information when used for propaganda.

    • ZooGuru@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      This was my first thought. Seems unlikely. I’d see this just as likely being propaganda.