this post was submitted on 09 Mar 2026
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China is a country where they have to put nets on the roofs of factories to prevent people from throwing themselves over the side because they work 14 hours a day for a slave wage making garbage that is sold in our 99 cent stores. Sounds like capitalism to me.
The nets were at foxconn ~~in capitalist occupied Taiwan~~. You clearly have never been to China or researched China beyond just absorbing western headlines with no scepticism.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foxconn_suicides
Care to modify your previous misinformation?
Yeah, I mixed up the location of the foxconn factory fair catch. Doesn't change the core point though.
Those nets were a Foxconn-specific response to a cluster of suicides at one company, not a national symbol of "China." If you actually look at the data, China's suicide rate is 8.9 per 100k, ranking around 65th globally. That's lower than the US (15.6), Canada (9.4), Australia (13.1), UK (9.5), Japan (14.7), South Korea (20.6) and much of mainland Europe.
China makes everything from cheap trinkets to (most likely) the phone you're typing this on. It's not a monolith. Yes, working conditions were harsh during the early offshoring boom, that was the brutal calculus of catching up. But that strategy lifted nearly a billion people out of absolute poverty. China now has the world's largest high-speed rail network, metro systems that dwarf most Western cities, and excess overtime has been explicitly ruled illegal by the Supreme Court, with enforcement ramping up.
On the system itself: China is in the socialist transitional period. Contradictions remain because capitalism is still hegemonic globally, but the commanding heights (finance, energy, telecoms, heavy industry) are publicly owned. The state isn't a neutral arbiter; it's the tool through which the dominant class enforces it's power, in China that is the masses (the proletariat). Harvard's Ash Center has tracked Chinese public opinion since 2003 and consistently finds approval of the central government above 90%. Chinese people don't view their system through a Western liberal lens, they see democracy as whole-process people's democracy: elections, consultation, grassroots feedback, policy adjustment, all integrated. The NPC has nearly 3,000 deputies, including representatives from all 55 minority groups, hundreds of frontline workers (manual labourers) and farmers, and workers from every sector. That's structural representation. You can critique labor issues without falling back on orientalist tropes that flatten 1.4 billion people into a caricature.
I mean, it doesn't change my point, that being corporations exploit workers in China because China is capitalist in all ways that matter.
It changes the lie you tried to tell me, that it was "Capitialst occupied" Tiawan, and that the glorious CCP would never allow such atrocity, which is clearly not true.
Those other countries also don't have workers throwing themselves off of buildings because their jobs crush their will to live, but I guess that's besides the point.
"Were harsh." Lol ok. Hey look at this video of these Chinese workers sitting inside of a hydraulic press, it totally doesn't show harsh working conditions.
Hence, "China is capitalist in all ways that matter."
If you really believe this then I have a bridge, two furry trout farms, and a wooden nickle factory to sell you.
Me stating the fact that the government of China allows corporations to exploit it's population is not an "orientalist trope."
You could also stop defending a country of oligarchs which doesn't care about human rights and clearly exploits it's population for the benefit of global corporations,
You've got a video clip and a worldview that fits on a bumper sticker, congrats. You don't actually care about Chinese workers; you just need us to be miserable props in your moral drama so you can feel superior. When reality doesn't match the trope, you double down instead of asking questions. Best of luck to you, I hope you overcome your orientalism.
The word you're looking for is "proof." I have proof that China exploits it's workers, becuase China is capitalist in all ways that matter.
I like how you totally ignored the rest of the comment, probably because you don't have a leg to stand on.
I care about them enough to not delude myself into thinking a government that doesn't give a shit about them is somehow better because it's "socialist" on paper.
As an Asian man (my father is Fillipino,) I forgive you your hipster racisim, because I know it's borne out of ignorance. Secondly, it's not "oritentalism" to tell the truth about an oppresive government.
🫡 Thank you for educating me about my government (that has 95+% support among the people even according to western institutes like Harvard). You a half Filipino American clearly understand it and it's nuances better than me despite not being able to engage with any of the analysis I put forth. It is so gracious of you to shoulder the white man's burden on their behalf. Again I salute you 🫡
FYI, as a post ages, there are diminishing returns to engaging, because the audience quickly dwindles. Somehow @Cowbee@lemmy.ml keeps going and never burns out—maybe he was bit by a radioactive debatebro—but most mortals need to pick their battles more strategically.
I don't mind engaging even without the audience if someone is directly replying to me. Best case it's an interesting conversation worst case I get to laugh at the idiocy of your average bigot.
🫡 As you were, then.
🫡
The radioactive debatebro is my past reddit self... Trying to recover from that, haha.