To feel I've been lied to about China

[Sulettamercury]

I'm well aware the country is far from perfect but no where is and I've just come back for the summer after spending 2 years there working as a teacher I'm going back in a few weeks.

What I can't get over is the fact all my friends seem to be indoctrinated into thinking China is this 1984 style hell hole where you can't criticise the government or do anything without being in constant fear.

I have to say living there really opened my eyes and I was shocked when in my first months of teaching one of the Chinese workers (now a good friend) started openly moaning about government policy and I'll admit I was nervous at the time but soon realised nothing would happen and that despite what I was told no one came after her and she didn't disappear and that every one was moaning about government policy if it didn't suit them with no consequences.

The infrastructure is also wonderful and far from the cheap rubbish you're told it is and housing isn't all on the verge of collapse or at least no worse than some of the rubbish I've seen here in the UK

Again it's definitely not perfect but AIBU to say I I feel like we're lied to in the west about how bad China really is and that some of the things we accuse them of we either do ourselves or we blow out of proportion?

I'm having trouble believing that OP is an English teacher!

Have you seriously never heard of the the persecution of minorities in China?

What kind of family values? It's still hard for women to get husbands to share childcare and many step back which leaves them vulnerable to DV. DV rates are quite high.

I think Xi's more recent measures have raised living standards above poverty in most areas- though I need to check.

But OP seems completely blind to the extent, as you say, to which this has come at the cost of freedom.

How bizarre to imply UK is comparable to China re slavery because we were invaded by the Romans and have historically had an Empire, (just like China has, incidentally).
So this means we can't complain that China currently has slaves??

I don't know who you are (if not AI), or what you represent, but logic is not your strong point!

I have and my view of living their has thrown me as it's not what I expected to find. People go to Dubai to live where's there's very shaky rights for women and minorities along with a lot of the atrocious practices including slavery but that's ok I guess in some folks minds and it's clearly ok for use to supply countries we know have very little regard from human life with weapons because we're 'protecting the world as we see it China would likey respond saying they are protecting their country.

None of its right and I doubt we have a clue at some of the stuff our country has gotten up to even in our lifetimes and will be regularly reported in China for similar reasons our governments are eager to hight it the opposite the way around.

I'm going to stop replying to the more political stuff and just read it as it's helpful but also makes me feel a little targeted that due having the admittedly now stupid idea of mentioning China I'm no immediately meant to justify their nearly 3000-5000 years of history. This is like asking and English person to justify everything our country has done past or present. You lot know I can't justify the things your saying so please point out the critiques I need to see them but don't point at me as it I'm now a representative of their government

Apologies for the edit wine is making it hard to my typos so it's likely time for bed soon

I do too.
Possibly the same ones.
The delivery of post and how theft is unheard of, sticks out to me as does the absolute necessity of having mobile phones on you at all times, just to be able to get through the day. While the phone use shows just how high tech it is, it’s also the way of tracking every single thing e everyone does. Phones have replaced everything and they can’t opt out.

I’m aware when watching that it is being created and checked. Are the content creators being paid by the gov?

When I see the hardships of the lady who works making shoes, I wonder just how hard it must be for so many others, if her life is allowed to be shown.

And yet here we are in the UK demanding the ground work for just that with age verification at every level and the ability for the UK to scan phones messages. At least the Chinese government at least offer some upsides and make sure the software those phones interact with makes some if not the majority of folks lives easier. It's really hard to take censorship stuff seriously when we're buying facial recognition camera's that the police use regularly at protests and we're pushing for digital ID etc...yet people are clapping it in with a round of applause and "think of the children"

Pretty sure right about content creators being paid to promote China but that's a little benign as most countries do this. Our adverts about London don't lead with "come to London we have stabbings and rampant drug use" I also ways saw those videos as typical "holiday advertising stunts".

You’re feeling targeted?? So why start such a strange post extolling life in China if you don’t want people bro disagree with you?

I don’t normally criticise spelling but you’re an English teacher and can’t spell ‘there’?

Wtf!

It just needs a few flags

I posed a question even in my OP I say the country isn't perfect. There's a difference between saying.

"Hey OP you're wrong about X,Y,Z please read this"

And

"Hey OP you liked your time in China so you're either a Bot, Chinese spy or must suddenly become a world history expert and answer for all these terrible things".

If my posting style annoys you I'm sorry I'm not trying to wind you up.

Tell us that when they attack Taiwan!

I'm I have fat fingers and have had a couple of glasses of wine and pretty late. Can I have a pass on this one or should I immediately resign?

It's a joke..

Exactly.

I'm not a wizard so of course future events would change my opinions but it's kinda amusing I'm now expected to know the future lol.

I’ve been to China 7/8 times OP. For work. It’s a funny place. I can see what you’re saying as it’s actually nothing like how it’s portrayed on the whole but the more rural you go, the more odd it is. The people can be super kind there but the one thing I despise is the lack of hygiene. I’ll never get over that. Spitting phlegm everywhere will never be ok

Your posts are full of false equivalences. If you really want to discuss China and its record on human rights, censorship, surveillance, etc., it would be better not to react by saying, "But other countries do these things too." Because everything is not equivalent to everything else.

It seems odd to me that you would question the undeniable reality of the Chinese government's actions after actually living in China for two years. As a teacher, do you work with children or adults? Do you spend your leisure time with local friends or with other foreigners?

Ok it's bed time too much wine is undermining the legitimacy of my profession. Thanks for engaging folks and if the thread isn't buried tomorrow I'll join in.

I'll remember tomorrow live up to your standards

Removing the full stop on the last sentence for dramatic effect.

Good night folks.

I have never understood this "we aren't told" nonsense. This isn't China, so you have free access to information.

China has an appalling human rights record. The government doesn't tolerate dissent or a free press. Being able to talk to a colleague without ending up in a reeducation camp doesn't change that.

The weird thing about this, is that it your perception of what is said in Western countries about China that appears to not match most of reality. Which is petty strange.

can see what you’re saying as it’s actually nothing like how it’s portrayed on the whole but the more rural you go, the more odd it is.

• can you go into more detail? No like the way it's portrayed but still odd- how?

On more trivial but still illuminating everyday topics, OP, have you engaged with /r/AskAChinese? I'm assuming you used a sideloaded VPN in China to access the actually world-wide web, but for all I know it might be one of the Reddit boards that trigger an investigation (yes, this does happen and is frequent).

Not sure I'd be overjoyed to live anywhere that [a] bans a huge amount of media, [b] doesn't publish any list of banned media, [c] overlooks some illegal media access but takes others very seriously, [d] publishes no criteria for 'serious' bans and [e] tries and punishes such access covertly and unpredictably.

People's interest in the wider world varies by individual, not culture. You would not be wrong to be such a Sinophile that you weren't very interested in comparative experience. I'd judge you for it but I'd acknowledge your right to be as biased or myopic as you wish.

You've been drawing false equivalences here, though. Maybe it's the wine ... it's no good saying, effectively, "This oppressive regime achieving economic success through exploitation is the same as European nations doing similar via the East India Company". There's a discussion to be had there, but it must start from the fact that the European empires are dead and we accept they were morally corrupt.

For what it's worth, our old empires didn't oppress/suppress their own people as much as China does to millions of Chinese. If we want to go wider - to the atrocities we inflicted on other peoples under the guise of economic & administrative development - we can look at the strings attached to China's African loans. Wanna go there?

Or you can just lean back, say you love the food and the efficient trains, and not really care about the political environment.

Okay. If you are teaching English, punctuation is quite important. You use either no punctuation or incorrect punctuation. This won’t help your students.

To start: ‘facial recognition camera's’ - the camera doesn’t possess anything. There should be no apostrophe here.

Not forgetting the:
Uyghurs
Tibetans
Kazakhs
Kyrgyz
ethnic Mongolians
and others.

Mass internment, forced labour, cultural and religious suppression, extreme surveillance, forced sterilization/abortion under the aim of 'deradicalization" and "vocational training"
and removing children from their families to "educate them" by erasing their language and culture are easily overlooked, I guess? 🤔
Have the United Nations and Human Rights Watch (among others) got it wrong?

https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2026/01/un-experts-alarmed-reports-forced-labour-uyghur-tibetan-and-other-minorities

https://www.hrw.org/tag/uyghurs

eta and this doesn't even scratch the surface

Never forget.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989_Tiananmen_Square_protests_and_massacre