r/interestingasfuck • u/Red_Lotus_Alchemist • 2d ago

/r/all A Chinese earthquake rescue team deployed drones to light up the night and aid search and rescue operations after the devastating 7.7 magnitude earthquake in Myanmar.

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u/[deleted] 2d ago edited 2d ago

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u/NitroLada 2d ago

I'm sure there's lots of unhappy people there but overall seems they're much more content than people in Canada/US are. I recently was speaking with a few Chinese visa students and they all had no desire to remain and when I asked why, they all said it's so much better in China in terms of lifestyle from things to do, safety, public transportation and so much more advanced. I was a bit shocked as i thought they would like it here especially as they've been here since HS and speak English and adapted more or less

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u/datdailo 2d ago

The human cost came during the industrialization and the great Chinese famine.

Happiness is subjective but it is undoubtedly better than it was in the past 100 years. Maybe the past few years have been bad, since COVID, and the economic turmoil it left behind. But I don't anticipate my next 4 years to be joyful either with a neighbor that elected a deranged criminal and con artist who wants to annex us. An upcoming election that'll be deeply polarizing isn't what I would call happiness either. There's no such thing as a perfect system or government because perfect is subjective too. They just excel in different areas and you make do.

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u/WorldwearyMan 2d ago

I’ve travelled a lot over the last 35 years and when in China was amazed and surprised by how content/happy most people seemed to be compared to most countries I’ve visited. Just my impression. Side note, Russian people in the early ‘90s seemed the most unhappy

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u/Cheesefactory8669 2d ago

I don't think we're seeing the same people, from what I can see a lot of them work a 9 hour job 6 days a week they ain't that happy

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u/BigEarl139 2d ago

Lmao have you ever been to China?

Your only experience is internet propaganda from non-Chinese individuals. These guys are giving first hand experience on the ground and y’all still refuse to believe it.

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u/Beat_the_Deadites 2d ago

Happiness is relative though. If you've gone from working 60 or 70 hours a week to 54, you're going to be thrilled. If you've gone from working 40 hours a week to 54, you're going to be pissed and exhausted.

China has built up so much so fast, they leapfrogged a lot of the West. They look and feel powerful, which feels great. That also involved bulldozing a lot of history and displacing a lot of poorer people, things that aren't easily done in democracies. Individual human rights will keep western cities looking basically the same until there's enough blight that people not only accept change, but demand it.

By the time that happens, China's shine will have worn off, and maybe India or Nigeria or Indonesia will be the hot new thing. The cycles are long.

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u/Tomas2891 2d ago

This is the country that had suicide nets in their Foxconn plant. They are overworked

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u/SolidCake 2d ago

Lmao youre referring to foxconn in taiwan

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u/lxlxnde 2d ago

That was coming up on 15 years ago, and wages have since more than doubled over there. I encourage you to find an up to date argument.

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u/Darkmayday 2d ago

Foxconn is taiwan. This is how clueless Redditors are about China lmao. And yet you keep running your mouth

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u/Tomas2891 2d ago

It was in Longhua Shenzhen. Keep lying to yourself though if it makes your CCP happy.

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u/Darkmayday 2d ago edited 2d ago

And there are suicide nets on the golden gate bridge. Is everyone in san fran depressed? This is your brain on US red scare propaganda

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u/EducationalNinja3550 2d ago

Less suicides per capita than the US, but the americans don’t put up suicide nets

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u/Kellowip 2d ago

Yeah, I'm sure the Uighurs are very happy in their concentration camps

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u/heart-aroni 2d ago edited 2d ago

Have you ever seen videos from Xinjiang?

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u/Kellowip 1d ago edited 1d ago

Yes i have https://youtu.be/4jbfLb7gS84?si=VEQkqMqlcUtS4xS5

Is a random YouTuber really the source that will form your opinion? Do you think they'll let these kind of travellers even close to any of the relevant camps? I don't doubt anything in the video, I'm sure Kashgar is nice and i would love to go there. But if you are watching any of the videos reporting on the camps one thing you will always see is people being followed by undercover agents and ultimately escorted off

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u/TrumpDesWillens 2d ago

You should go overthere now and report on what you see:

https://www.kayak.com/flights/NYC-URC/2025-05-01?ucs=19m6tl0

Flights from NYC to there, nobody is stopping you.

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u/medlzk 2d ago

Educate yourself https://uwidata.com/16190-10-imperialist-lies-about-chinas-uyghur-population-and-the-truth/

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u/CelestialFury 2d ago

Do you have an actual source? This Turkey registered website is extremely biased.

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u/medlzk 2d ago

Not the point, read the thing and follow the rabbit yourself. The Guardian or NYT are just as biased, if not more. Realize the occidental internet being full of occidental sources is de facto full of occidental propaganda. Xinjiang situation isn't perfectly clear and CCP isn't full of saints, but there is nuance out there that needs to be brought up.

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u/Kellowip 1d ago

Ok, here's Al Jazeera reporting on it: https://youtu.be/z9aLNxcokOE?si=U5WbsEKDd_jHKBwn

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u/CelestialFury 1d ago

Not the point,

lmao okay then

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u/Kellowip 1d ago

Lol, you are citing a Russian disinformation campaign by the man Prigozhin (of Wagner group fame) out of all people

"In 2020, media influence organization Project Lakhta, owned by Prigozhin, developed a new website, United World International (UWI)."

"United World International is an online news site which promotes pro-Russian disinformation. " https://sanctions.lursoft.lv/person/united-world-international/uk-15438

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u/Alternative-Mix7288 2d ago

How about the people the U.S. are currently putting in their concentration camps? I bet China's are far more humane, and not proper torture camps.

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u/Kellowip 1d ago

Two wrongs don't make a right

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u/Darkmayday 2d ago

Reeducation camps to fix radical Islam are better than the indiscriminate bombing and killing that US and Isreal love.

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u/Kellowip 1d ago

Two wrongs don't make a right

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u/Darkmayday 1d ago

Not wrong to curb extremist Islam through education. How else would you stop Islamic terrorist attacks? Through bombing them?

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u/Kellowip 1d ago

I doubt your assumption that the people imprisoned in those camps are extremist.

Also "education" is not what is happening in these types of camps.

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u/Darkmayday 1d ago

Then you clearly dont know about the terrorist attacks and rioting in Xinjiang. Do yourself a favour and get educated https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrorism_in_China

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u/Kellowip 1d ago

It still does not warrant the imprisonment, torture and forced labour of a million Uyghurs. My point remains, your assumption that the camps are for mere "education" of "extremists" is very naive and clearly regurgitating CCP propaganda narrative

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u/toteslegoat 2d ago

No, a vast majority of Chinese citizens are actually pretty happy and proud of the ccp.

There’s a reason why the ccp is able to become so powerful, it’s cause they actually brought results for their citizens and moved China into contender for world number 1. Contender might need to be dropped soon.

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u/callisstaa 2d ago edited 2d ago

Yeah I've been living in China for a few years and people here are happy. It turns out that the freedoms people really care about are the freedom to walk around at night in safety, the freedom to go for a meal without being shaken down at every opportunity and the freedom to work a menial job and buy a house in their 30s.

China has 50,000 kilometres of high speed rail that it operates at a loss yet continues to expand because infrastructure is something that people actually want, more than the freedom to burn cars or talk shit about Trump to literally no avail.

The only thing I missed initially was smoking weed but it's a small sacrifice to live in a society that feels just like the West felt prior to 9/11.

The other major difference IMO is that the average Chinese has respect for the Western world and wants to see us prosper whereas Americans have to think that 1.4 billion people on the other side of the world are suffering just to have something to smile about.

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u/Alternative-Mix7288 2d ago

Buddy I value my freedom to talk shit about Trump, so don't underestimate that. However, we have lost that freedom here in the U.S. You can be denied entry and put into a concentration camp if they find these things on your phone at the airport. Elon Musk even said they'd be going after people pushing "propaganda". Our country is cooked, and at least China is living in the future.. but "China Bad" I'm sure.

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u/Icyrow 2d ago

Buddy I value my freedom to talk shit about Trump, so don't underestimate that.

as i cba re-writing the comment here just read this first i wrote it at the end though looking back over my comment: i get that i'm agreeing with you on a lot of points, just sorta adding ot your comment, not intending to say you're wrong, though in looking over my comment it sounds pretty aggressive, just know that i think we think the same thing and it's not intended.

americans say this, but while i'd say you have more than china in this regard, it is not absolute. like we're literally dealing with people getting their facebooks scrubbed to say if they said anything bad in deportations and if you want to test it, write out a comment detailing (doesn't have to be a lot) how you would end someone at the top of the country, like, look at where they will be in a few weeks and write something out, see what happens.

no country has absolute freedom, at some point it's freedom to do over the freedom to be safe, i.e, your freedom to drive a car that we know is more dangerous to those around you, the freedom to shout "fire" in a movie theatre, freedom to detail a dumb ass plan to do something very dumb.

like shouldn't your kids be free to go to school without being shot?

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u/Alternative-Mix7288 2d ago

Yes, I think we agree mostly. I'm reminded of Ben Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety"

I believe the key word here being "essential". I'm not an anarchist and value liberty over freedom. Yes, we 100% should be responsible for protecting our kids at school. This is where liberty trumps freedom. Children should have the liberty to go to school and not be affected by others' freedom to own overpowered and unnecessary weapons. Free speech is an essential liberty imo and one of the things I would criticize China the most. However, I do understand that the U.S. has been fed massive amounts of propaganda and they likely have more freedom than we perceive here. Unfortunately we've given up freedoms here in this country without receiving any of the safeties or other benefits China has received in exchange.

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u/OutrageousFocus9008 2d ago

Aint nobody buying a house in a major city on a menial job in China lol...

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u/TDaltonC 2d ago

The CCPs power came well before the delivered improvement, not after.

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u/toteslegoat 1d ago

Yea but I’m speaking to the fact that they’re mostly uncontested and citizens aren’t complaining about them strictly cause there’s results. If their corruption was at a point where it was holding science, tech, economics back; im sure it’d look different there when it comes to civil unrest.

Ppl are majority/mostly content w how things are. Ppls are happy 🤷‍♂️

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u/TDaltonC 1d ago

The Tiananmen Square protest were not about a lack of results (often called "output legitimacy"). It was a lack of process legitimacy and input legitimacy.

I think it's disingenuous to say that the lack of people volunteering to become tank tread lubricant indicates that the CCP is "uncontested."

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u/ArkitekZero 2d ago

How many points did you add to your social credit score with that one?

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u/heart-aroni 2d ago

How many points did you add to your social credit score with that one?

"social credit system/scores" isn't real and is propaganda. Ask any Chinese person from China and they wouldn't know what you're talking about.

People's understanding of what China is and what it actually is so skewed with propaganda. That's why you get such starkly different narratives of "poor, cllapsing, backwards totalitarian hell" vs "advanced society with roaring economy and industry producing leading edge technology" floating around at the same time.

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u/callisstaa 2d ago edited 2d ago

The big recent one was when Trump threatened to ban TikTok so US 'TikTok refugees' went over to Rednote instead and saw young, fashionable middle class Chinese girls sharing their lives online. The Chinese users welcomed the Americans with open arm seeing it as a great opportunity for a cultural exchange without censorship. The Americans responded in kind and had their minds blown by how different China was through the eyes of actual happy Chinese people rather than the grim Communist hellscape that the western media promoted. Duolingo said that people studying Mandarin on their app increased 200% at the time.

It's probably one of the most wholesome things that has happened on the internet in a while.

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u/taco_blasted_ 2d ago

Lmao this thread is full of Chinese bots.

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u/ArkitekZero 2d ago

Sounds like something someone who doesn't want to lose points for wrongthink would say.

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u/Aemort 2d ago

I don't know, what's your credit score? Yanno, the mostly arbitrary number in the USA that decides whether or not you're allowed to get nice housing or a new car.

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u/ArkitekZero 2d ago

It's good, of course, because the rules are well-defined, and I can't lose points for things my uncle said that the ruling party doesn't like.

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u/toteslegoat 1d ago

If we are talking bout credit score here i can assure you it’s prob better than yours lmfao. Pretty hard to own real estate in nyc otherwise.

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u/Spartancfos 2d ago

Is the US different?

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u/Playful-Insect5650 2d ago

"I read it online, trust me guys.'

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u/apstevenso2 2d ago

Thank you. People really get blinded by the sugar rush of all the pretty lights on the buildings and other technological "candy" but people really don't get the depth of what life is like for a lot of people here.

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u/SolidCake 2d ago

yeah such horrors like 220% wage increase for everyone in 10 years

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u/apstevenso2 2d ago

Yes, a two hundred twenty percent wage increase is great but if you make only a thousand dollars a month, maybe only have one day off per week and your rent cost three hundred dollars a month you are still not in a very different situation 🤷‍♂️

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u/StepAwayFromTheDuck 2d ago

So tell us. What is life like there that makes it awful?

Because if I look at the US, the majority of people is ALSO not doing too well, having to work 2 jobs to be able to pay rent, being scared of ever falling seriously ill because you have no or bad health insurance, seeing a small minority walk away with all the wealth— and on top of that the current administration arguably making everything worse for middle and working class. Is that still better than the average Chinese citizen?

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u/apstevenso2 2d ago

At the end of the day all those problems are the fault of American people for being too pacified and not being in touch with what's happening with their own politics, however, in a very different way American people are the only people who have the ability to make the changes necessary to make themselves, and as far as I'm concerned that will always be better than any material satisfaction that the Chinese government will give Chinese people. If tomorrow Chinese administration started to make policies that benefited the higher ranking members of the party, there would be nothing that Chinese people could do about it

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u/taco_blasted_ 2d ago

What people don't understand is that the CCP will do whatever it has to do in order to keep their power.

Even If that means reversing anything that has made people happy.

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u/SirComesAl0t 2d ago

If tomorrow Chinese administration started to make policies that benefited the higher ranking members of the party, there would be nothing that Chinese people could do about it

The funny thing is that the CCP knows how to benefit higher ranking party members while keeping everyday citizens happy at the same time. Those two things aren't mutually exclusive.

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u/StepAwayFromTheDuck 1d ago

You didn’t really answer my question: how is life different/ worse for the average Chinese person that the average US person?

If tomorrow Chinese administration started to make policies that benefited the higher ranking members of the party, there would be nothing that Chinese people could do about it

This is pretty literally what’s happening in the US now though, where the select few get tax cuts and the average person gets less and less

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u/Geodude532 2d ago

Lots of people ignoring the COVID lockups in China. If even a third of what came out was true...

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u/Psychological_Fly627 1d ago

Happiness is different for everyone, for people who grew up in China in 60s and 70s, they went through very hard times, so now they are very happy with having food on the table, roof over their head and time to play with grandkids.

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u/PandaCheese2016 1d ago

It's tough to accurately gauge happiness at a global scale, but this source shows that it's been going up in China and going down in the US as of late.

https://www.theglobaleconomy.com/China/happiness/

https://www.theglobaleconomy.com/USA/happiness/

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u/Salohacin 2d ago

Are you happy?

Can't complain. No really, I'm not allowed to complain.

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u/SitInCorner_Yo2 2d ago

Yeah, if they can read Chinese they might have a better idea on how complex things are, but they might eat up all the feel good propaganda too.