rigor

Besides what others have said, this expat.clearly has a. no more nuanced understanding than your average western armchair expert.

The point that China only cares about GDP growth is false and misinformed. China, in particular with Xi, has made a large shift to quality development. If you follow China this is clear as the official position and policy goal. This includes green development. In doing so they have thus far been quite successful.

All thr points on real estate are superficial conjecture on a complex issue. Just consider that GDP is effectively a mesure of transactions/investments/consumption. High GDP in the US coming from healthcare prices being inflated does not translate to growth or development. Likewise, a hot real estate market might be good for GDP, but it does not necessarily translate to development. We should recognize this, as does the Chinese government.

Not to say real estate in China is irrelevant, land sales is a major source of funds for local government. It has importamce and implications, none of which where reflected upon in the comment you quoted.

It just means we’ll see years, perhaps decades, of negative growth in China, increasingly authoritative measures taken by the government, more protests, more suppressed protests, more people with opinions disappearing, more brain drain, more kindergarten stabbings, more music with revolutionary themes removed. Year by year, things will be a little worse off than the year before. More people will give up and lie flat. The only movies in the cinemas will be about the Korean War, and the only things on TV will be anti-Japanese shows or wuxia palace dramas.

All of this is false and misleading. I cant go point by point, dont have the time. Just consider it is the US and EU with negative growth. (western) International organizations and financial companies project solid growth in China. There is increasing diversity and quality in Chinese cinema, even socially critical movies. There was one commenting on the challenges of rasing a kid these days, touching on house prices, education, and more. I could go on.

I would cite sources, but most of this is easy to find. If you are reading this I encourage you to read more about China.

What is the general area/field your diploma is in? I dont think thr Chinese government will let arbitrary people into China to set up a commune... However, you could consider continuing your education in China (presumably a master if you have a bachelor?). China has scholarship schemes that you can look into. Many have full tuition plus living stipend. Then, you will improve your skills and enable yourself to stay more easily subsequent to your studies, if you so chose.

Well, to be fair I didn't add the link to the article by accident, so it is a bit confusing...

https://www.salon.com/2017/10/08/womens-labor-sex-work-and-u-s-military-bases-abroad/

Sorry, I forgot to add the link to the article hahaha

https://www.salon.com/2017/10/08/womens-labor-sex-work-and-u-s-military-bases-abroad/

Economic growth itself is just a number, development is what matters. In addition and as a part of development I also specifically mentioned education and improvement of quality of life. You could add literacy, housing, levels of nourishment, and much, much more.

I won't argue about history or its interpretations with you now. Just consider the path to development wealthy capitalist countries took, which involved slavery, colonialism, genocide, brutal worker suppression, and perhaps the worse working conditions in history during industrialisation.

You may attribute many horible things to communist countries. I might argue much of this is exaggerated by the media of the anti-comunist country you live in. Even if it is all true, developed capitalist countries did the same to themselves, and other peoples around the globe.

Then consider the development communist countries have had compared to undeveloped capitalist countries. People can have better lives, that is what matters.

Words lose meaning and become fickle dog whistles for narrative political correctness with liberals. Is it against our narrative? It is a propaganda mouthpiece. Free press is only for unsalted crackers, apparently; even though it isn't free.

That asside, GT has some good journalism and takes on current events; exactly why it is being discredited. A real history and understanding of GT would be genuinely worthwhile.

Individuals in struggling societies don't always atomize, many revolutions occurred due to degradation in conditions. When the cost of fighting for change is less than doing nothing you will fight, and you will fight with others, or else you will quickly fail and be forgotten.

Curious what your definition of facism is. With a few exceptions, communist inclined states have always lead to unprecedented economic development, education, improvement of quality of life, etc. If you take all cold war propaganda at face value, you can not deny the development seen in such states; when balanced by alleged atrocities, you see a stark contrast to colnialist nations that too committed atrocities but with little to show for it.

I find the surface level historical criticisms of communist states, even if applied at an equaly superficial level, is applied to capitalist states, you would find a staggering contradiction. Maybe you should read more. Add to your socioeconomic calculus the fact that no communist state benefited from the same starting point as colonizer countries, and try to be critical of this. Consider that none of these communist states had the benifits of colonization, and when compared to other developing countries did remarkably better.

The point is not about impact but intention. Evidently liberalism, for all its flaws, certainly has had a significant impact. The progressive forces 250 years ago where for the most part already proto socialists. Fundamentally liberalism has been reactionary, even in the case of feudalism and monarchy, liberalism has tended to air for maintaining monarchy; such as constitutional monarchies where one can find leberals having preference for this rather than republics. This can be observed in historical cases such as France where many liberals wished to maintain the monarchy, but the contradictions and progressive forces where too great. Rather than a progressive force, I would contend that liberalism tends to be reactionary to development and progressive forces. Today this can be seen in the liberal leaders of developing countries handicapping themselves and their sovereignty by maintaining economic relations to the benefit of the imperial core. See ECOWAS and 'preserving democracy' as of late.

Curious if you could elaborate. Authority is complicated. Perhaps you should read this relatively short text by Engels.

The point is that liberalism and facism are intrinsically linked. Liberalism does not seek to change the world and stems from philosophies instead seeking to explain it. Accordingly, liberalism is a philosophical justification for the capitalist status quo. As such, when contradictions in capitalism accentuate with time, such as those between classes, liberalism turns to fascism. Scratch a liberal and a fascist bleeds, because the liberal is a closet fascist when times are good; when class struggle poses a threat, it clamps down. You can see this throughout history.

That a poor, simplified explanation, but I hope it helps.

I can appreciate analog and/or specialized tools. I think typewriters, film cameras, watches, etc. are all fascinating. I might enjoy engaging with them. However, a low end Android is cheaper more accessible to most, assuming limited finances and/or no inheritance of such items. 'Everything machines' can be a boon for those individuals by means of concentrating utility and reducing cost. Evidently, capitalism nonetheless creates issues with this, as others have correctly discussed.

I would say that in China, one uses smartphones for neerly everything, even more so than in the global north. This is for various reasons, but it does have practically since all you ever need will be in your phone, including wallet and keys. This does make the development of HarmonyOS by Huawei very interesting. It may abate some of the current issues, especially given that I believe the OS is open source.

That would help the economic situation in the imperial core... At least for the bourgeoisie.