this post was submitted on 22 Feb 2026
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Global News

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How the "Kill Line" Redefined the American Dream in China (fpif.org)
submitted 2 days ago by schizoidman@lemmy.zip to c/globalnews@lemmy.zip
16 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

cross-posted from : https://lemmy.zip/post/59579417

The term, borrowed from competitive gaming, refers to a health threshold where a character is vulnerable to an instant, unblockable finishing move. In the context of American life, Chinese observers use it to describe a terrifyingly low “margin for error.” This is the point where a single stroke of bad luck—a $3,000 ambulance ride or a sudden layoff—triggers a terminal collapse into homelessness.

This shift in perception is driven by radical transparency. For the first time, the “American Dream” is being filtered through the lens of real people rather than Hollywood studios. Through international students and overseas Chinese on TikTok and Weibo, the “unfiltered” America has been revealed.

Instead of the manicured suburbs of Desperate Housewives, Chinese netizens see the sprawling tent cities of the West Coast. They witness the “Great Reckoning” on Xiaohongshu, where American users share medical bills that look like mortgage statements.

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[–] Hotznplotzn@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Well at gunpoint to choose one to live in, I’d sure pick China without much pondering.

Really? When do you leave?

Just look at the linked website and you will see that literally all articles by this author echo the Chinese government's propaganda narratives without providing verifiable and independent sources (OP's post history has the same propaganda spin).

Xi Jinping has been advocating against social welfare on many occasions arguing that it would make people 'lazy.' It comes as no surprise that China's social system is far behind compared to European countries, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and many others. Inequality has also been rising in China in the last 10 years and is much higher than in all Western countries.

There is also ample evidence that China's future for a fairer social system is bleak under the current regime as social and health policies are heavily skewed toward the urban, formal, and state sectors. As one report says,

In a system devoid of free elections, and where agriculture and rural areas have only a weak bureaucratic voice, farmers and migrant workers have minimal political clout and remain politically inactive at the national level. Consequently, social and health policies are heavily skewed toward the urban, formal, and state sectors, which are the loudest, best connected, and most articulate groups in Chinese society.

This bias is perpetuated by a political regime that places a high premium on maintaining stability ... Autocratic leaders deliberately uphold a social welfare regime biased toward government officials and urban employees in the state sector and providing only limited social welfare to other urban dwellers and rural workers in the informal sector [...]

Looking forward, as economic growth slows and the burden of providing the necessary social services for the elderly mounts, the expansion of the Chinese welfare state is likely reaching its limits.

And this report highlights just one major weakness of China so-called welfare system. Framing China as a welfare state, even if just better than the US, is a very bad joke.

[Edit typo.]

[–] Dyskolos@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 day ago

Really? When do you leave?

Why should I leave? I was already lucky enough to be born in one of the "better" countries.

And dude, I don't doubt that China is far from a great nation. Hence I said if I had to choose at gunpoint. That this article is probably just silly propaganda...who cares. Most of everything is just dumb propaganda nowadays and should be ignored.

Yet, I don't know enough about China but enough about the USA to surely pick the lesser known evil. If forced at before mentioned gunpoint.

In the end, evil is evil, no matter where. It's humans that destroy everything good. Everywhere.