• 18 Posts
  • 79 Comments
Joined 3 years ago
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Cake day: February 19th, 2022

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  • Mullvad works, sometimes with some issues, but make sure you set it up before you go. Otherwise there is shadowsocks which is more of a proxy than a VPN. It doesn’t help anonymize you as well in the US, but is more reliable in China. You can use an app called clash which works for most devices, there are others eg nekkoray which works on linux. These are mostly just different graphical user interfaces, the main thing is to make sure you either get or set up the proxy and have an app that uses an up to date protocol for it.

    Also worth noting, if you have a US sim card, it will probably work for foreign websites and the like while in China. Depending on your data plan, eg. You might have unlimited but very slow data abroad, that can be a good backup in case something is not working.

    On a similar note, you could look into getting a sim card from Hong Kong, which should allow you to use it for stuff in China while also having fast data and access to blocked websites.

    Congrats on going to China, Chengdu is a great city. Make sure you take the opportunity to visit other places too, with the high speed train (and regular train if you want to save money) it’s really easy to visit other cities & provinces and definitely worth taking advantage of.









  • China (15.7% in 2023) is currently near the world median youth unemployment rate. The CIA world Factbook has it at 93/201. What does that mean? You have to look at more that just that figure. Do Cuba (3%) and Liberia (2.3%) have similar economies? What about Italy (28.7%) and Iran (28.8%)?

    Youth unemployment is defined as the percent of 15-24 year old persons who are seeking work but can’t find it. Keep in mind 75% of youth is enrolled in tertiary education in China (World Bank) and the MoE says senior high enrollment is 91.6% in 2022 with an increasing trend.

    So 15.7% of youth that can’t find jobs is only out of those not already in school/university, and of course only counting those searching.

    I can’t point to the causal reason for a relative increase over previous years, but looking at increasing rates of education could explain less otherwise employed youth is getting their education, making the percent of unemployed youth greater. I’d have to look deeper at the statistics, but the point is don’t look at a headline “China has this one bad stat” and make assumptions.

    @[email protected] you might find the stats interesting as well given your comment.

    Edit: typo











  • As others mentioned part of how the CPC stayed in power was definitely that the Sino Soviet split diverted attention and allowed some reprieve. But that’s definitely not all of it.

    Keep in mind China went through the opium wars, rebellions killing tens of millions (Taiping rebellion), Japanese invasion, civil war, then was isolated by the US like other socialist countries until the Sino Soviet split.

    Even then the US kept pressure on China, think Taiwan, Hong Kong, Tibet, Xinjiang where and are all places the US stokes tensions and attempted to foment collapse.

    Compared to lots of other communist nations, I think the CPC was able to maintain a higher level of credibility and support from its population. Some of that came from maintaining consistent improvements in people’s lives. Notably a 2012 paper noted that:

    The pace and scale of China’s economic transformation have no historicalhe pace and scale of China’s economic transformation have no historical precedent. In 1978, China was one of the poorest countries in the world.precedent. In 1978, China was one of the poorest countries in the world. The real per capita GDP in China was only one-fortieth of the U.S. levelThe real per capita GDP in China was only one-fortieth of the U.S. level and one-tenth the Brazilian level. Since then, China’s real per capita GDP hasand one-tenth the Brazilian level. Since then, China’s real per capita GDP has grown at an average rate exceeding 8 percent per year. As a result, China’s real pergrown at an average rate exceeding 8 percent per year. As a result, China’s real per capita GDP is now almost one-fifth the U.S. level and at the same level as Brazil.capita GDP is now almost one-fifth the U.S. level and at the same level as Brazil.

    China has obviously since continues growing. Keep in mind, before the reform and opening up China was already growing, it was inconsistent (great leap forward) but it was growing. Many metrics like life expectancy and literacy increased substantially in that period. China’s reduction is poverty is so great it accounts for ¾ of the global reduction since 1982 per a world bank report

    I don’t like the graph because if China was on the top, you would see global poverty hasn’t changed much if you exclude China.

    Anyways, in comparison to other communist countries, while they all have incredible achievements in their own right, because of the radical improvements in people’s lives the party was bale to maintain very high credibility and standing with the people. As I mentioned, the US tries to cause conflicts in China, but it’s more difficult with such high support. You can see this Harvard study for more details, in short approval of the government is high and increased during the duration of the survey from 2003-2016.

    It might not be an exact answer, and it would take a lot of time to explain how China was able to accomplish what it did (which might be more of the answer your looking for) but hopefully this context is helpful.


  • Immigrants where the real ubermensch all along, able to con the gov for all it’s cash while doing every job in the same time. Seems like the race scientists have ir backwards, they should be advocating for their own replacement given this superior breed or human, more clever and harder working. /j