Submitted 10 months ago by L4s@lemmy.world [bot] to technology@lemmy.world
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.
I feel like Technology community is overused for unrelated topics in Lemmy. This article for example should belong to a community like worldnews news or something in that nature.
the bot posting this isn’t really giving a shit probably
Mods, on the other hand, should.
Why the fuck am I now sitting here reading US economic/political propaganda on the technology feed? GTFO
Yeah, a couple of decades ago China was a miracle as western institutions repeatedly redefined the poverty threshold to make global poverty look like it was improving. Back then it was touting the power of the free market, with most of the gains being in China. Now that they want conflict with China, those numbers are no longer good enough. I’m not saying China doesn’t have a poverty problem, I’m just saying this is illustrative of propaganda changing the narrative.
It’s no secret that the Chinese economy is faltering. How many of their “too big to fail” corps have gone tits up in the past 2 years? We’ve all seen the videos of people struggling to even afford living in cages. Also, calling it propaganda when you have no data to back up or refute the claims made in the article just makes you look like a tankie.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Internet censors in China worked around the clock this week to suppress online discussions about poverty in the country after an economist revealed nearly 1 billion people were living off less than $300 a month.
On Weibo, searches for the now disabled hashtag returned a notice reading: “In accordance with relevant laws, regulations and policies, the content of this topic cannot be displayed.”
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.
Li nonetheless concluded that competent government leadership could enable further economic growth, possibly doubling China’s GDP by 2035.
“Although 40 years of reform and opening up have greatly improved the country’s comprehensive strength and level of national income, as of today, the fact that we have a large population, few resources and very uneven development is still obvious, and a considerable number of residents are still close to the poverty line,” Wang and Meng wrote.
At the end of 2020, China’s President Xi declared a “complete victory” over absolute poverty in the country, which Beijing defines as living off 2,300 yuan a year.
The original article contains 579 words, the summary contains 217 words. Saved 63%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
There is no poverty in Ba Sing Se.
Yeah… Avatar was rather spot on with the depiction of China-like Ba Sing Se.
Alternative headline: “The Vast Majority Of Chinese People Are Poverty Stricken”
This is really really really REALLY not good.
I haven’t looked since 2021 but I was under the impression that poverty alleviation in China had been remarkable and almost single-handedly responsible for making it look like the UN hit the Millennium Development Goals or whatever they were called. Maybe it’s a matter of degree, and people are still poor but not ultra poor?
It would be wise to keep the exchange rates and purchasing power in mind. A dollar in America doesn’t get you an equal amount of goods as a dollar’s worth of yuan in China could get you. That being said, from what I gather, most people in China live on an income that is under 2000 yuan a month, and the rest of their income is subsidized with social assistance. Even so, that’s not a great long term economic strategy if people’s basic income isn’t enough to live on.
qooqie@lemmy.world 10 months 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 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.”
grayman@lemmy.world 10 months 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.
ttmrichter@lemmy.world 10 months ago
ZooGuru@lemmy.world 10 months ago
This was my first thought. Seems unlikely. I’d see this just as likely being propaganda.
LWD@lemm.ee 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.
Filthmontane@lemmy.world 10 months 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 10 months ago
So by relative purchasing power, why would China want to censor information if it didn’t actually put them in a negative light?
veni_vedi_veni@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Mao-like administrations tend to do that. Undoing whatever progress Dong fulfilled