this post was submitted on 30 Dec 2023
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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.

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[–] qooqie@lemmy.world 71 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (5 children)

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 38 points 10 months 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."

[–] Filthmontane@lemmy.world 11 points 10 months ago (1 children)

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 3 points 10 months ago (2 children)

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 5 points 10 months ago

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

[–] hagelslager@feddit.nl 0 points 10 months ago

"Saving face" is a big thing in their culture, as well as in other Asian cultures.

[–] ZooGuru@lemmy.world 11 points 10 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] LWD@lemm.ee 2 points 10 months ago

Thank goodness Xi managed to suppress that horrible propaganda created by the evil Western... I mean Chinese financial company that reported on their research.

We need to trust more reliable sources with less conflict of interest, like the World Bank.

[–] grayman@lemmy.world 10 points 10 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] veni_vedi_veni@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Mao-like administrations tend to do that. Undoing whatever progress Deng fulfilled