To feel I've been lied to about China

Isn't it 'a little bit disingenuous' to imply that the historical slavery on which cities like London and York were built is exactly the same as the modern-day slavery many commentators have reported on in places like Xinjiang?

Here's a thought. We can't go back in history to change the former. But is there any pressure/influence, etc. that could be exerted today to try to put an end to the latter?

I'm torn between you being a stunningly naive 23 year old, or a Chinese bot.

What is a Chinese delegate?

Hmmm. Good point.

I'll take that as my cue to give up on this one, and go to sleep.

I wouldn’t get too het up about this one. 🧐

I taught a child whose mother had been taken by the Chinese government for speaking against it. As far as I know, she never reappeared.

Apples and oranges. It really is. Just as thinking that the contrast between London and York is germane to anything.

I find it pretty depressing that someone can spend two years in a country and remain totally oblivious to the genocide within it, and all the other cruelties.

But I suppose if you spend the whole time in an expat bubble enjoying what a city like Shanghai, for instance, can offer, and show no curiosity about the rest of the country, it's quite possible to do.

Absolutely this. Plus all the posts from @saraclara and others about the Uighurs.

PP have also mentioned Tibet, the treatment of protesters in Hong Kong, punishment of practitioners of Falun Gong, etc.

Well London is a vibrant city and York, both historical and rural. The stark difference isn't execution, slave labour and cutting the legs of live dogs/cats and cooking and eating them in the street. Are we forgetting Chinese people taking their pets to the top of buildings and throwing them off during Covid? Or children locked in apartments with grandparents and when they were opened up, many of the grandparents had been dead for days? It's only 9 years ago that the one child policy was stopped. Baby girls were left to die of exposure/starvation. I made the mistake of watching, 'the dying rooms' 1995, while heavily pregnant. It's fantastic if things are improving, but as said, there's a lot of legal abuses that happens.

Interesting topic.
I tend to skip all the posts from people who have never been to China.
But the posts from people who have lived there and are living there are very interesting.

I know a few Chinese parents in my kid's primary school. They are a mixed bag. Some/most are very very wealthy. Their kids went from primary to expensive boarding schools and private schools. They drive brand new cars. Money is no object. E.g. one bought a BMW during his lunchbreak.
Another is not well off. Very strict with her son. Too strict as her son rebels and is badly behaved. Parents seemingly value education and push the boy to do extra curriculum maths, language and art classes but never sport. Then when the child was offered a place in a very good school, they turned it down because the other school was more convenient. I never understood it.

Family values? God give me strength.

Oh yeah, it's totally comparable. Can't get a fag paper between the two, in fact.

China is the world's leading executioner, putting thousands of people to death each year.

46 offences carry the death penalty including: Corruption, Bribery, Treason (and that’s a very fluid crime), desertion from the army, refusing army orders, flooding, Cowardice on the battlefield, “endangering public safety through dangerous means.

The number of executions is a closely guarded secret, but thousands upon thousands.

Not to mention the 3 million in Education Camps.

Hundreds of thousands of premature deaths and incidents of serious respiratory illness have been caused by exposure to industrial air pollution.

500 million people in China are without safe and clean drinking water.

Forced Labour and Modern Slavery is rife, especially against minorities and, immigrant labour

What a Utopia

I couldn't agree more @Sulettamercury. I lived there for 3 years and now regard it as my 2nd home. I'd go back in a heartbeat.

The western propaganda we get about China is unrecognisable from the reality. China is 10 years ahead of the West in many ways. But also has rock solid family values and focus on education.

My betting is that the vast majority of people with firm anti China sentiment have never been there.

Wait, you have family members in China?

Wouldn't you know more about it than we do?
And you were saying that you have returned - so you already lived there? What's going on?

Exactly this. Do you know how they treat Christians and practitioners of Falun Gong, for example? And if they decide that you’ve been a bit too vocal in your criticism of the State, they don’t just come after you. They come after your family members too.

A dangerous place to be a citizen.

https://www.waterstones.com/book/waiting-to-be-arrested-at-night/tahir-hamut-izgil/joshua-l-freeman/9781529922752

The book is called Waiting to Be Arrested at Night.

What is happening in Xinjiang, and has been happening for more than a decade: